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sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization

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Copyright, 1901, By E. R. DuMont

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VOLTAIRE

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY

Vol. XIV — Part I

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LIST OF PLATES

Part I

PAGE

The Siege of Orleans . . Frontispiece

Louis XI . 136

Charles V. and Pizarro .... 269

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY.

CHAPTER LXV.

THE BLACK PRINCE, DON PEDRO THE CRUEL, KING

OF CASTILE, AND THE CONSTABLE DU GUESCLIN.

The kingdom of Castile was in almost as miser¬ able a condition as France. Peter, or Don Pedro, surnamed the Cruel, whom historians have repre¬ sented as a merciless tiger that thirsted after human blood, and even felt a ferocious joy in spilling it, sat upon the throne. I dare affirm that there does not exist such a character in nature. Sanguinary men are only such in the transports of revenge, or in the severity of that horrid policy which considers cruelty as a necessary measure ; but no man ever spills blood merely for his pleasure.

This prince ascended the throne of Castile a minor, and under very unfavorable circumstances. His father, Alphonso XI., had had seven bastards by his mistress, Eleonora de Gusman. These bastards had such powerful settlements left them that they defied the royal authority; and their mother, who had still more power than they, insulted the queen-dow-

5

6 Ancient and Modern History.

ager. In short, the kingdom of Castile was divided into two parties, one of which sided with the queen- mother, and the other with Eleonora de Gusman ; so that when the young king came of age, he found himself obliged to maintain a civil war against the faction of the bastards. He engaged them in sev¬ eral battles, proved victorious, and at last put Eleo¬ nora to death, to satisfy his mother’s revenge. Thus far he might be termed valiant but too severe. He afterwards espoused Blanche of Bourbon, and the first news he heard concerning his wife, upon her arrival at Valladolid, was that she had fallen in love with the grand master of St. Jago, one of those very bastards who had waged war against him. I am sensible that intrigues of this nature are seldom authenticated by proofs, and that a prudent king ought rather to pretend ignorance in such matters, than blindly follow the dictates of revenge; but, after all, the king was excusable, since there is to this day a family in Spain which boasts of being descended from this adulterous commerce.

Queen Blanche had at least the imprudence to enter into too close connection with the faction of the bastards, her husband s enemies. Can we then be surprised that the king left her in a castle, and consoled himself with other amours ?

Don Pedro, therefore, had, at the same time, the king of Aragon and his rebellious brothers to encounter. Victory however still followed him, and it must be confessed, he made a cruel use of it.

The Black Prince.

7

He seldom forgave, and his relatives, who were ■found in arms against him, were sacrificed to his resentment. In short, he ordered the grand master of St. Jago to be put to death. This action pro¬ cured him the name of “ Cruel,” while John, king of France, who had assassinated his constable and four Norman lords, was called John the Good.

During these troubles, his wife, Blanche, died. She had been judged culpable, and, of course, it was said she died by poison. But let me once more observe that we should be cautious how we give credit to a charge of this nature, without sufficient proof.

It was, doubtless, the interest of the king’s ene¬ mies to spread a report about Europe of his having poisoned his wife. Henry de Transtamare, one of the bastards, who had the death of a mother and a brother to revenge, and what was still more, his own interest to support, took advantage of this oppor¬ tunity. France was at that time infested by those united banditti called Malandrini, who did all the mischief which Edward of England had not been able to do. This Henry de Transtamare entered into a treaty with Charles V. to rid France of those freebooters, by taking them into his service. The king of Aragon, always an enemy to the sovereign of Castile, promised to grant them a free passage through his dominions. Bertrand Du Guesclin, a knight of great reputation, who had only fought for an opportunity to signalize himself, engaged

8 Ancient and Modern History.

the Malandrins to acknowledge him as their chief, and follow him into Castile. This enterprise of Du Guesclin had been considered as a holy action, which he performed, as he himself acknowledged, for the good of his soul. The holiness of this action con¬ sisted in leading a band of robbers, to assist a rebel against his lawful, though cruel, sovereign.

It is well known that Du Guesclin, in passing by Avignon, being in want of money to pay his troops, obliged the pope to give him a large sum for the safety of himself and his court. This was at that time a necessary extortion, but I dare not mention the name which would have been given it had it not been done by one who commanded a troop that might pass for a little army.

1366 — The bastard Henry, assisted by these troops, which had increased in their march, and likewise supported by the king of Aragon, began by causing himself to be proclaimed king in the town of Burgos. Don Pedro, finding himself thus attacked by the French, applied for assistance to the Black Prince, their conqueror. This prince, who was sovereign of Guienne, and consequently must have beheld with a jealous eye any success of the French arms in Spain, determined by interest and honor, espoused the juster side, and marched to the assist¬ ance of Pedro, with his Gascons and some Eng¬ lish ; and soon after was fought, on the banks of the Ebro, near the village of Navarrete, the bloody battle which is called by that name, between Don

The Black Prince.

9

Pedro and the Black Prince on one side, and Henry de Transtamare and the constable Du Guesclin on the other. This battle proved more glorious to the Black Prince than even those of Crecy and Poitiers had done ; because here the field was longer dis¬ puted. In a word, his victory was complete ; for he took Bertrand Du Guesclin and Marshal d’An- drehen prisoners, who would surrender to no one but him.

Henry de Transtamare, after the loss of this battle, was obliged to fly into Aragon ; and the Black Prince resettled Don Pedro on the throne. Don Pedro, on this occasion, exerted the unhappy right of revenge to its full extent, and treated several of the rebels with all that severity which the laws of government authorize under the name of justice. The Black Prince, who had the glory of restoring him to his crown, had also that of putting a stop to his cruelties: and indeed this prince is, next to Alfred, the hero whom the English hold most in veneration.

As soon as the supporter of Don Pedro was with¬ drawn, and Bertrand Du Guesclin had paid his ran¬ som, the bastard of Transtamare revived the party of the malcontents, and Du Guesclin, at the private instigation of the French king, Charles V., began to raise new troops.

The count de Transtamare had on his side Aragon, the rebels of Castile, and the aid of France; while not only the greater part of the Castilians, but also

io Ancient and Modern History.

Portugal and the Moors of Spain, declared for Don Pedro, who only gained fresh odium by these new allies, without reaping much real service from them.

Henry and Du Guesclin, having no longer the superior genius and fortune of the Black Prince to encounter, gained a complete victory over Pedro in the neighborhood of' Toledo, in 1368; who, after this defeat, retired for safety to a castle, where he was soon besieged by the victors, and, endeavoring to make his escape, was taken prisoner by a French gentleman, named le Begue de Vilaines. Being conducted to this knight’s tent, the first object which met his eyes was the count de Transtamare. It is said that, transported with^rage at this sight, he flew, disarmed as he was, upon him, and this brother so far is the truth — with a poniard he held in his hand, instantly put an end to his life.

Thus perished Don Pedro, at the age of thirty- four , and with him ended the Castilian race. His mortal foe succeeded him on the throne, without any other right than that of murder : and from him descended the kings of Castile, who afterward reigned in Spain till the sceptre of that kingdom was transferred to the house of Austria, by the mar¬ riage of Queen Joan of Castile with Philip the Handsome, father of the famous Charles V.

France and England.

i i

CHAPTER LXVI.

FRANCE AND ENGLAND DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES V.

The policy of Charles V. saved France from ruin; and the necessity of weakening the conquerors Edward III. and his son, the Black Prince, gives a show of justice to his procedure. He took advan¬ tage of the father’s old age, and the son’s state of ill health, who was afflicted with dropsy, of which he died in 1371. His first step was to sow dissension between the Black Prince, sovereign of Guienne, and his vassals ; he eluded the performance of his treaties, and refused to pay the remainder of his father’s ransom, under various plausible pretences. He entered into connection with the king of Navarre, Charles the Bad, who had so many large posses¬ sions in France ; he likewise stirred up the new king of Scotland, Robert Stuart, against England; he restored order and regularity in the finances, and made the people contribute to the necessary supplies without murmuring ; in fine, without stirring out of his cabinet, he found means to have as much success as King Edward, who had crossed the sea, and gained such signal victories.

As soon as he perceived all the springs of his political machine well secured, and in readiness for action, he made one of those bold strokes which might pass for rashness in politics, if not justified

12 Ancient and Modern History.

by well-concerted measures and a successful issue. In 1369 he sent a knight and a judge of Toulouse to summon the Black Prince to appear before him in the court of peers, to give an account of his con¬ duct.

This was acting as sovereign judge of the con¬ queror of his father and grandfather, who was still in possession of Guienne and the surrounding terri¬ tories, in absolute sovereignty, by right of con¬ quest and the most solemn treaty. For he not only summoned the prince as his subject, but an arret of the parliament was likewise issued in 1370, con¬ fiscating the province of Guienne and all the places that appertained to the English in France. The custom of those times was to declare war by a herald at arms ; but on this occasion one of the king’s domestic servants was sent to London to perform the ceremony — a plain proof that Edward was no longer in a situation to be feared.

The irregularity of these proceedings was in some measure dignified by the valor and abilities of Ber¬ trand Du Guesclin, now constable of France, and more especially by the good order which Charles had established throughout his whole kingdom, which proved the truth of this maxim in public affairs, that “ where the profit is, there is the glory.”

The Black Prince, who was every day declining in his health, was no longer able to take the field : his father could send him but very weak supplies, and the English, who had before been everywhere vie-

France and England. 13

torious, were now beaten on all sides. Bertrand Du Guesclin, though he did not obtain such signal vic¬ tories as those of Crecy and Poitiers, made exactly such a campaign, as that by which in these latter times Marshal Turenne gained the character of the greatest general in Europe. He fell upon the English settled about Maine and Avignon, defeated all their parties, one after the other, and with his own hand took their general, Grandison, prisoner. He added Poitou and Saintonge to the French domin¬ ions, and took all the towns belonging to the Eng¬ lish, either by force of arms, or intrigues. The very seasons themselves seemed to fight for Charles. A formidable fleet of English ships, which was des¬ tined to make a descent upon the coasts of France, was several times put back by contrary winds ; and temporary truces, artfully managed, prepared the way for future successes.

Charles V. who, twenty years before, had not money sufficient to pay his guards, now saw himself master of five armies, and a fine fleet. His ships of war insulted the English on their own coasts, land¬ ing troops and ravaging the country, while Eng¬ land, who had now lost her warrior king, sat, a tame spectator of these insults. She had now noth¬ ing left in France but the city of Bordeaux, Calais, and a few other fortified towns.

France lost her Bertrand Du Guesclin in 1380. Everyone knows what honors his sovereign paid to his memory. He was the first, I think, that had

14 Ancient and Modern History.

a funeral oration pronounced in his praise, and none but himself and Marshal Turenne were ever interred in the church designed for the burying- place of the kings of France. His body was carried to the grave with the same ceremonies as those of crowned heads, and was followed by four princes of the blood ; his horses, agreeably to the customs of those times, were presented, in the church, to the bishop who performed the funeral service, who laid his hand upon them and blessed them. These cir¬ cumstances are of no further importance than that they serve to show the spirit of chivalry, since the regard and veneration paid to great knights who had rendered themselves famous by their feats in arms, extended even to the horses who fought under them in battle.

Charles V. did not long survive Du Guesclin. He is said to have died by a slow poison, which had been given him ten years before, and ended his life at the age of forty-four. The real poison which despatched Charles V. was a bad constitution.

No one is ignorant of the wise ordinance, published by this prince, wherein the time of a king of France coming of age was fixed at fourteen. This wise 01 dinance, which, however, proved insufficient to prevent the subsequent troubles, was enrolled at a bed of justice held in 1374.

Charles desired, by this ordinance, to eradicate the ancient abuse of private wars between the lords, an abuse which had hitherto passed as a law of

France and England. 1 5

the state, and which, as soon as he came to be master, he took care to prohibit, and even forbade the wearing of arms ; but this was one of those laws which it was impossible at that time to put in execu¬ tion.

The treasures which he amassed during his reign are said to have amounted to the sum of seventeen million livres of the money then current. It is cer¬ tain that he had accumulated great riches, and that all the fruits of his economy were dissipated by his brother, the duke of Anjou, in the unfortunate expe¬ dition to Naples, of which I have already spoken.

After the decease of Edward III., the conqueror of France, and of Charles V., the restorer of that kingdom, it was plainly seen that the superiority of a nation depends wholly upon those who are at the helm of government.

Richard II., son of the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather, Edward III., at the age of eleven ; and, some time after, Charles VI. came to the crown of France, at the age of twelve. These two minor¬ ities proved unhappy ; but England had the first and greatest reason to complain.

We have seen the frenzy and madness which pos¬ sessed the peasants of France under King John, and how cruelly they revenged themselves for the state of slavery they had been in, and the miseries they had suffered, upon those gentlemen who had been their oppressors. The same madness seized the English ; and the war of Rome with the Slavs seemed revived

1 6 Ancient and Modern History.

in this country. A tiler and a priest did as much mischief to England as the quarrels between the king and parliament are capable of producing in that kingdom. These two incendiaries assembled the people of three counties, and easily found means to persuade them that the rich had long enough enjoyed the goods of this world, and that it was now time for the poor to take their revenge. They led them directly to London, plundered a part of the city, and caused the archbishop of Canterbury and the high treas¬ urer to be beheaded. It is true that this madness ended in the death of their chiefs and the total dis¬ persion of the mutineers : but these storms, which were common in Europe, sufficiently showed what kind of government prevailed at that time. They were as yet unacquainted with the true end of poli¬ tics, which consists in subjecting all degrees and orders, in a state, to the public good.

It may be said also, that the English at that time did not better understand the limits of their kings’ prerogatives, nor of the privileges of their parlia¬ ments. Richard II., at the age of eighteen, aimed at being despotic, and his subjects wanted to be free. This soon produced a civil war. In other countries a civil war almost always proves fatal to the malcon¬ tents, but in England the king generally smarts for it. Richard, after having maintained a ten years’ con¬ test with his subjects about authority, saw himself at length abandoned even by his own party. His cousin, the duke of Lancaster, grandson of the late

France and England. 17

Edward III., and who had for a long time been banished out of the kingdom, returned with only three ships. Indeed he stood in need of no greater assistance; for, the instant he arrived, the whole nation declared for him ; and Richard requested only that they would grant him his life and a pension.

A parliament was called, in which this prince was solemnly deposed and confined in the Tower, in 1399, whence he sent the duke of Lancaster the ensigns of royalty, together with a writing, signed by his own hand, in which he acknowledged himself alto¬ gether unqualified to reign, as indeed he was, since weak enough to sign such a declaration.

Thus did this one century behold two kings of England, Edward II. and Richard II., the emperor Wenceslaus, and Pope John XXIII., all four tried, condemned, and deposed, in the most solemn manner and with all the formalities of justice.

The English Parliament, having deposed their king, issued a decree, importing that, in case of any attempt being made to restore him, he should be adjudged worthy of death. Accordingly, upon the first rising that was made in his favor, eight ruffians went and assassinated the unhappy monarch in his prison in 1400. But Richard defended his life far better than he had his throne. He wrested a pole-axe from one of the assassins, with which he laid four of the number dead at his feet before he fell him¬ self. The duke of Lancaster now ascended the throne under the name of Henry IV., during whose

1 8 Ancient and Modern History.

reign England neither enjoyed tranquillity, nor was in a condition to undertake anything against France: but his son, Henry V., brought about the greatest revolution since the time of Charlemagne.

CHAPTER LXVII.

CHARLES VI. OF FRANCE, AND THE INVASION OF THAT KINGDOM BY HENRY V. OF ENGLAND.

Part of the care which Charles V. had taken to re-establish France proved the means of hastening its subversion. The immense treasures he had amassed were dissipated, and the taxes he imposed had alienated the minds of his people. It has been observed that this prince expended fifteen hundred marks of gold annually for the maintenance of his household ; and his brothers, who were regents of the kingdom during the minority of Charles VI., who came to the crown before he was thirteen, expended more than seven thousand, and yet that prince was almost in want of common necessaries. These minute details are not to be slighted, since they frequently prove the secret springs of ruin in mo'st states, as well as in private families.

Louis of Anjou, one of the uncles of Charles VI., and the same who had been adopted by Joan I., queen of Naples, not satisfied with having embezzled his pupil s treasure, loaded the people with exactions. Paris, Rouen, and most of the cities rose up in arms ; and the same fury which afterward destroyed Paris

Charles VI.

l9

in the time of the League in the minority of Louis XIV. appeared under Charles VI. The public and private punishments inflicted on this occasion were as cruel as the insurrection had been outrageous. The great papal schism which prevailed at that time, and of which we have already treated, contributed to increase their disorders. The popes of Avignon, who were acknowledged by the French court, com¬ pleted the impoverishment of this kingdom by all the arts which avarice could invent, under the dis¬ guise of religion. The people, however, flattered themselves, that when the king came of age he would make amends for all these evils by a more happy government.

He had in person, in 1384, avenged the count of Flanders, his vassal, on the rebellious Flemings, whom the English still continued to support; and took advantage of the troubles which distracted that unhappy island during the reign of Richard II. He also fitted out a fleet of twelve hundred ships, to make a descent on the English coast. This prodig¬ ious number of ships is by no means incredible ; St. Louis had a much larger fleet. It is true they were only vessels for transporting troops, but the ease with which they equipped these large fleets plainly shows that they had a much greater quantity of timber for building than we have at present, and that they were not deficient in point of industry. The jealousy which prevailed between the king’s uncles put a stop to the sailing of this fleet ; and at last

20 Ancient and Modern History.

it only served as a proof of the resources France might have been provided with under a good admin¬ istration, since, notwithstanding the great quantity of money which the duke of Anjou carried out of the kingdom with him in his unhappy expedition to Naples, it was still able to undertake such great enterprises.

At length there seemed to be some respite from the confusion which had perplexed the kingdom. The king set out for Brittany to chastise the duke, of whom France had so much reason to complain ; when, unfortunately, at this very juncture, he was seized with a terrible frenzy. This distemper began with a drowsiness, followed by a loss of understand¬ ing, and ending at length in a fit of madness. When he was first seized with this fit, he killed four men, and continued striking everyone about him, till at length, exhausted by these convulsive motions, he fell into a deep lethargy.

I am not in the least surprised that all France thought him poisoned and bewitched. There have been instances even in this present age, notwith¬ standing its improvement in knowledge, of popular prejudices altogether as unjust. His brother, the duke of Orleans, had married Valentine of Milan, and she was accused of having been the cause of the king’s misfortune, which proves that the French, who were at that time very ignorant, thought the Italians had more knowledge than themselves. This suspicion was some time afterward increased

Charles VI. 21

by an adventure entirely agreeable to the rudeness of those times.

1393 — There was a masquerade at court, in which the king appeared in the dress of a satyr, dragging four other satyrs after him in chains. Their dresses were made of linen, daubed over with rosin, to which they had fastened cords of flax and hemp. The duke of Orleans unfortunately thrust his torch against one of those habits, which took fire in an instant.

A

The four lords, who were the four satyrs in the masque, were burned, and the king’s life was with great difficulty preserved by the happy presence of mind of his sister-in-law, the duchess of Berry, who wrapped him all over in her mantua. This accident caused a return of one of his fits; from which he might probably have been relieved by immediate bleeding, bathing, and a proper regimen ; but, instead of that, they sent for a sorcerer from Montpellier. The sorcerer came, and the king appeared a little better, which was instantly ascribed to the power of magic. But, by frequent relapses, the disorder was rendered so inveterate as to become incurable. To complete the misfortunes of France, the king had some intervals of sanity, otherwise they might have provided for the government of the kingdom ; thus the little share of reason he enjoyed proved more fatal than even his fits : the estates were never assembled, nor was the least regulation made in the public administration. The king still continued king, intrusting his despised authority

'll Ancient and Modern History.

and the care of his person sometimes to his brother, and at other times to his uncles, the dukes of Bur¬ gundy and Berry. It was still a further addition to the misfortunes of the state, that these princes had considerable inheritances in the kingdom ; in due course Paris became the theatre of a civil war, sometimes privately, sometimes openly carried on. Factions prevailed everywhere, and even the univer¬ sity pretended to a share in the government.

1407 — Everybody knows that John, duke of Bur¬ gundy, caused his cousin, the duke of Orleans, to be assassinated in the Rue Barbette. The king had neither understanding nor power enough to bring the aggressor to justice. However, the duke of Burgundy thought it necessary to take out letters of grace, after which he came to court and triumphed in his crime. He assembled all the princes and grandees; and, in the presence of them all, Dr. John Petit not only justified the murder of the duke of Orleans, but also established the doctrine of homi¬ cide, which he founded upon the example of those assassinations we read of in the historical books of the holy writ. Thus did this preacher impudently erect into a doctrine what those books only deliver to us as an event, instead of acting agreeably to the duties of his calling, by telling men that a murder related in the Holy Scripture is as truly detestable as if it was found in the annals of savages, or in the times of which I am speaking. This evil doctrine

Charles VI.

23

was condemned, as we have seen, at the Council of Constance, but has nevertheless been since revived.

It was at this time that the marshal de Boucicaut suffered Genoa to be lost, which had put itself under the protection of France. The French were all mas¬ sacred there, as they had been before in Sicily. The flower of the nobility, who had gone to signalize themselves in Hungary against the Turkish emperor, Bajazet, were all cut off in the fatal battle lost by the Christians. But these misfortunes abroad were small in comparison with those which befell the state at home.

Isabella of Bavaria, Charles’s queen, had a party in Paris, the duke of Burgundy had his, and the children of the late duke of Orleans had another, which was very considerable. The poor king alone had no party. But what will serve to show us how important the city of Paris was at that time, and what influence it had on the other parts of the king¬ dom is, that the duke of Burgundy, who to the province of which he bore the title, added all Flan¬ ders and Artois, made it the principal object of his ambition to become master of Paris. His faction was called the Burgundians, and that of Orleans went by the name of the Armagnacs, from the count of Armagnac, father-in-law to the duke of Orleans, son to him who had been assassinated in Paris. Whichever of these two factions had the upper hand never let slip any opportunity of hanging, murdering, or burning all of the opposite party;

24 Ancient and Modern History.

so that no person was sure of his life for a day together. They fought in the streets, in the houses, in the fields, and even in the churches.

1415 — Here was a very favorable opportunity for England to recover her ancient patrimony in France, as well as those ceded to her by treaties ; and Henry V., who was a prince of equal courage and prudence, did not suffer it to pass unnoticed, but negotiated and made preparations for war at the same time. He made a descent into Normandy with an army of nearly fifty thousand men, took Harfleur, and advanced into the midst of a country torn in pieces by factions, and unable to resist him ; but three-fourths of his army were carried off by contagious dysentery. Nevertheless, this great invasion served to unite all parties against the Eng¬ lish ; even Burgundy himself, though he had already been treating privately with the king of England, sent five hundred men in arms, with some cross¬ bow men, to the assistance of his country. All the nobility mounted on horseback, and the commoners marched under their banners: so that Constable d’Albret soon saw himself at the head of sixty thou¬ sand fighting men.

The success that formerly waited on Edward III. now followed Henry V., but the principal resem¬ blance was in the battle of Agincourt, which was in every respect like that of Crecy. The English won it almost as soon as it began. Their tall bows, which were almost the height of a man, and which

Charles VI.

25

they made use of with surprising strength and skill, soon determined the victory in their favor ; but they had neither cannons nor fusils, which is another corroborating proof that there were none used at the battle of Crecy. Perhaps these bows are much more formidable weapons. I have seen some of them that would carry farther than a fusil ; and they may be used with much more despatch, and last longer. However, they are now entirely out of use. It may be further observed that the gendarm¬ erie of France fought on foot at the battles of Agin- court, Crecy, and Poitiers ; whereas, had they been mounted, they would in all probability have formed an invincible corps. There happened on this mem¬ orable day a thing most horrible even in war. While the armies were still engaged, some militia of Picardy came behind the English to plunder their camp; upon which Henry ordered his men to kill all the prisoners they had taken. They were accordingly put to the sword; and after this the English took fourteen thousand men, whose lives they spared. Seven princes of France were slain this day, together with the constable. Five princes were taken prisoners, and above ten thousand Frenchmen were left on the field of battle.

It would seem that after so decisive a victory, Henry had nothing to do but to march to Paris, and complete the conquest of a divided, exhausted, and ruined kingdom. But these very ruins were some¬ what fortified ; for it is a certain fact that from

iG Ancient and Modern History.

this battle of Agincourt, which threw all France into mourning, and which cost the English only three persons of any note, the victors reaped no other fruit than glory. Henry was obliged to return to England, in order to raise money and fresh troops.

The spirit of giddiness and inconstancy, which had seized the French nation as well as their king, did what the defeat of Agincourt had not been able to do. Two dauphins were already dead, and the third, who was afterward Charles VII., and at that time was only sixteen years of age, endeavored to save the remains of this great wreck. The queen, his mother, had extorted letters patent from her husband, by which she was intrusted with the reins of government. She was a covetous and ambitious woman, and greatly addicted to gallantry. The treasure of which she had plundered the kingdom and her husband, she had carefully deposited in several places, particularly in the churches. The dauphin and the Armagnac faction, who had dis¬ covered this money, made use of it for the pressing wants of the public. To this affront which she received from her son, the king added another of a more sensible nature. One evening as he was going to pay a visit to the queen in her own apart¬ ment, he met the lord of Boisbourdon coming out ; he instantly ordered him to be apprehended, put to the torture, and afterward sewn up in a sack and thrown into the Seine. The queen was sent prisoner to Blois, and thence to Tours, without

Charles VI.

27

being suffered to speak with her husband. It was this accident, and not the battle of Agincourt which placed the crown of France on the king of Eng¬ land’s head. The queen implored the assistance of the duke of Burgundy, who embraced this oppor¬ tunity of establishing his own authority on these new disasters of his country'.

The duke released the queen from her confine¬ ment at Tours, ravaged the country all the way he marched, and at length concluded a league with the king of England. Without this alliance there would have been no revolution. Henry V. at length assem¬ bled an army of twenty-five thousand men, and landed a second time in Normandy. He advanced toward Paris, while John, duke of Burgundy, pre¬ sented himself before the gates of this city, where a poor senseless king remained shut up, a prey to every kind of sedition. The duke of Burgundy’s faction in one day massacred Constable d’Armagnac, the arch¬ bishops of Rheims and Tours, five prelates, the abbot of St. Denis, and forty magistrates. The queen and the duke of Burgundy made their triumphal entry into Paris in the midst of all this blood and slaughter. The dauphin was obliged to fly beyond the Loire, and Henry V. was already master of all Normandy. In 1418 the king’s party, as well as those of the queen, the duke of Burgundy, and the dauphin, were all in treaty at the same time with the king of England ; treachery and dissimu¬ lation were equal on all sides. The young dauphin,

28 Ancient and Modern History.

who was at that time governed by Tanguy du Cha- tel, at length, in 1419, contrived that unhappy inter¬ view with the duke of Burgundy on the bridge of Montereau. Each of them came attended by ten knights; and Tanguy du Chatel slew the duke of Burgundy in the presence of the dauphin : thus was the murder of the duke of Orleans avenged by another murder, which was the more detestable because accompanied by violation of public faith.

One would be almost tempted to believe that this murder was not premeditated, so very badly had they taken their measures for supporting the conse¬ quences. Philip the Good, the new duke of Bur¬ gundy, who succeeded his father, became of course an enemy to the dauphin, through duty as well as politics. The queen, his mother, whom he had incensed, became as implacable as a step-mother ; while the king of England, taking advantage of these horrid circumstances, proclaimed that God led him by the hand to punish the iniquitous French. In 1420 Queen Isabella and the new duke of Bur¬ gundy, Philip, concluded a peace with Henry at Troyes, which proved more fatal to France than all the preceding wars had done ; and by which they gave Catherine, daughter of Charles VI., in mar¬ riage to the king of England, together with France for her dowry.

It was at the same time agreed that Henry should be acknowledged king, but that he should bear only the title of regent during the remainder of the

Charles VI.

29

unhappy life of the king of France, who was now altogether childish. In fine, it was determined by the contract, that the person styling him¬ self dauphin, should be pursued with the utmost vigor. Queen Isabella conducted her wretched husband and her daughter to Troyes, where the marriage was consummated. Henry, now king of France, made his entry peaceably into Paris, and governed without opposition ; while Charles VI. continued shut up with a few domestics in the Hotel , de St. Paul, and Queen Isabella began already to drink deep of the cup of repentance.

Philip, duke of Burgundy, appeared before the two kings at the Hotel de St. Paul, when the few remaining grandees of the kingdom were assembled, and solemnly demanded justice for the murder of his father. The procurator-general of Burgundy, Nich¬ olas Raulin, and a doctor of the university of Paris, named John Larcher, preferred articles of accusa¬ tion against the dauphin. The first president of Paris, with some few deputies of his body, assisted at this assembly.

The advocate-general, Marigni, made a speech against the dauphin, not as a presumptive heir and defender of the crown, but as against a common assassin. Upon this the parliament summoned the dauphin to appear at the marble table, as it is called. This is a large table, which was used in the time of St. Louis, for receiving the fines paid for vas¬ salage, at the tower of the Louvre, and which ever

30 Ancient and Modern History.

after remained as a kind of mark of jurisdiction. But the dauphin not appearing, he was condemned for contumacy.

It was a very nice and difficult question to decide whether this court had the power of judging the dauphin, whether the Salic law could be subverted on this occasion, and whether, as no vengeance had been taken for the murder of the duke of Orleans, the death of his murderer could claim revenge. We know that long after this, Philip II. of Spain caused his own son to be murdered, and that Cosmo I., duke of Florence, put to death one of his sons who had murdered the other. This fact is undoubtedly true, and Varillas has been wrongfully accused of falsity in this relation. President de Thou plainly proves that he was informed of all the circumstances upon the spot; and in our time Czar Peter the Great condemned one of his sons to death. Dreadful examples ! but in which the son’s inheritance was not given away to a foreigner.

The dauphin retired into Anjou, where he led the life of an exile. Henry V., king of France and Pngland, returned to London in order to raise fresh supplies and new troops. It was not to the interest of the people of England, who have a strong passion for liberty, that their king should be master of France, as in this case their country would be in danger of becoming a province to a foreign king¬ dom , and, after draining itself to establish its prince in Paris, would have seen itself reduced to

Charles VI.

3i

slavery by the forces of that very country which it had conquered, and which its king' had in his hands.

However, Henry V. soon returned to Paris with more authority than ever : he had treasures and armies at his command, and was moreover in the prime of his life ; from all of which it was probable that the crown of France was likely to be trans¬ ferred forever to the house of Lancaster. But death cut short these mighty hopes and successes. Henry was seized with a fistula. In these days of greater knowledge he might possibly have been cured, but the ignorance of the times was the cause of his death; and he expired, in 1422, at the castle of Vincennes, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. His body lay in state at St. Denis, after which it was carried to England and deposited at Westminster among the kings of England.

Soon after Charles VI., who had been suffered, out of compassion, to enjoy the empty title of king, ended his wretched days, after having passed nearly thirty years in almost continual fits of madness, the unhappiest of kings, and king of the unhappiest people of Europe.

The duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V., was the only person who attended his funeral. There was not one of the great lords present at the cere¬ mony : some of them had been slain at the battle of Agincourt, the remainder were prisoners in Eng¬ land ; and the duke of Burgundy would not yield precedency to the duke of Bedford : but he was soon

32 Ancient and Modern History.

after obliged to give way in everything, for Bed¬ ford was declared regent of France : and Henry VI., son of Henry V., a minor only nine months old, was proclaimed king at Paris, and at London. The city of Paris even sent deputies to London to take the oath of allegiance to this infant.

CHAPTER LX VIII.

FRANCE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES VII.

This inundation which overspread France from England was much the same as that which hap¬ pened to England from the French, in the time of Louis VIII., but it was of longer duration, and more violent. Charles VII. had his kingdom to recover, inch by inch. He had to fight against the duke of Bedford, who was as absolute as Henry V., and against the duke of Burgundy, now one of the most powerful princes in Europe, by having annexed Hainault, Brabant, and Holland to his former domains. Besides, Charles had as much to fear from his friends as his foes ; most of them insulting his misfortunes to such a degree that the count de Riche¬ mont, his constable, and brother of the duke of Brit¬ tany, caused two of his favorites to be strangled.

We may judge of the deplorable situation to which Charles was reduced, from the necessity he was under of making the silver mark pass for ninety livres in the places subject to his obedience, instead of a half livre, as in the time of Charlemagne.

He was likewise soon obliged to have recourse to

Charles VII.

33

another much stranger expedient, namely, to a miracle. A gentleman upon the frontiers of Lor¬ raine, whose name was Baudricourt, happened to meet with a young servant wench at an inn in the town of Vaucouleurs, whom he thought a fit person to act the character of a female warrior and a proph¬ etess. Joan of Arc — which was the name of this heroine — whom the vulgar look upon as a shep¬ herdess, was in fact only a tavern girl ; “of a robust make,” as Monstrelet says, “ and who could ride without a saddle, and perform other manly exer¬ cises which young maidens are unaccustomed to.” She was made to pass for a young shepherdess of eighteen ; and yet it is evident from her confes¬ sion that she was at that time twenty-seven. She had courage and wit sufficient to engage in this delicate enterprise, which afterward became a heroic one, and suffered herself to be carried before the king at Bourges, where she was examined by matrons, who took care to find her a virgin, and by certain doctors of the university, and some members of the parlia¬ ment, who all without hesitation declared her inspired.* Whether they were really imposed upon, or were crafty enough to adopt the project, the vul¬ gar swallowed the bait, and that was sufficient.

The English were at that time, in 1428, besieging Orleans, Charles’s last resource, and were upon the point of making themselves masters of the town, when this amazon in man’s dress, directed by able officers, undertook to throw reinforcements into the

34 Ancient and Modern History.

town. Previous to her attempt she harangued the soldiers, as one sent from God, and inspired them with that enthusiastic courage peculiar to all who imagine they behold the Deity Himself fighting their cause. After this she put herself at their head, deliv¬ ered Orleans, beat the English, foretold to Charles that she would see him consecrated at Rheims, ful¬ filled her promise, sword in hand, and assisted a^ the coronation, holding the standard with which she had so bravely fought.

These rapid victories obtained by a girl, with all the appearances of a miracle, and the king’s corona¬ tion, which conciliated the public respect to his per¬ son, had almost restored the lawful prince, and expelled the foreign pretender, when the instrument of all these wonders, Joan of Arc, was wounded and taken prisoner in 1430, while defending Compiegne. Such a person as the Black Prince would have hon¬ ored and respected her courage ; but the regent, Bed¬ ford, thought it necesary to detract from it, in order to revive the drooping spirits of the English. She had pretended to perform a miracle, and Bedford pretended to believe her a witch.

My principal end is always to observe the spirit of the times, since it is that which directs the great events of the world.

The university of Paris presented a complaint against Joan, accusing her of heresy and witchcraft. Therefore this university either believed what the regent would have it believe ; or if it did not believe

Charles VII.

35

it, it was guilty of most infamous baseness. This heroine, who was worthy of that miracle which she had feigned, was tried at Rouen by Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, by five other French bishops, and one English bishop, assisted by a Dominican monk, vicar to the Inquisition, and by the doctors to the uni¬ versity ; who declared her “ a superstitious prophet¬ ess of the devil, a blasphemer against God and His saints, and one who had been guilty of numberless errors against the faith of Christ.” As such she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to fast on bread and water. She made a reply to her judges, which, in my opinion, is worthy of eternal memory. She was asked why she dared to assist at the conse¬ cration of Charles, as his standard-bearer. “ Be¬ cause,” answered she, “ it is but just that the person who shared in the toil should partake likewise of the honor.”

Some time after this, being accused of having again put on men’s clothes, which had been left in her way purposely to tempt her, her judges, who cer¬ tainly had no right to try her, as she was a prisoner of war, declared her a relapsed heretic, in 1431 ; and without further ceremony condemned to the flames a person who, for the services she had rendered her king, would have had altars erected to her in those heroic times when mankind were wont to decree such honors to their deliverers. Charles VII. afterward restored her memory with honor, which indeed had been sufficiently honored by her punishment.

36 Ancient and Modern History.

Cruelty alone is not sufficient to carry men to such executions ; there must likewise be a certain fanati¬ cism, composed of superstition and ignorance, which has been the common malady of almost all ages. Some time before this the English had condemned a princess of Gloucester to do penance in St. Paul’s church, and a female friend of hers was burned alive, upon pretence of certain magic practices against the king’s life. They had also burned Lord Cobham for a heretic : and in Brittany had inflicted the same punishment on Marshal de Retz, who was accused of sorcery, and with having butchered young children for the sake of making use of their blood in his pretended incantations.

In these unhappy times, the communication be¬ tween the provinces was so interrupted, and the people bordering upon each other were so much strangers, that an enterprising woman, a few years after the death of the Maid of Orleans had the bold¬ ness to assume her name in Lorraine, resolutely averring that she had escaped the punishment in¬ tended her, and that a substitute had been burned in her stead. But what is more strange than all the rest is that the people believed this idle story. The impostor was loaded with honors and wealth ; and a pel son of the family of Armoises publicly espoused her, in 1436, thinking to marry a real heroine, who, though meanly born, was at least upon an equality with him by tbe grandeur of her actions.

During the war, which was rather tedious than

Charles VII.

37

decisive, and the source of many miseries, there « happened another event which saved the kingdom of France. The duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, merited this name by at length forgiving the death of his father, and joining with the head of his family against a foreign invader. He even carried this generosity so far as to deliver the duke of Orleans, the son of him who had been assassinated at Paris, from his long confinement in London, by paying his ransom, which is said to have amounted to three hundred thousand gold crowns, an exaggeration common with the writers of those times. But still this behavior was a proof of great virtue. There have always been some great souls in the most cor¬ rupted times. This prince’s virtue, however, did not prevent him from giving a free hand to pleasure, and the love of women, which can never be a vice but when it prompts to bad actions. It is this same Philip who, in 1430, instituted the order of the Golden Fleece, in honor of one of his mistresses. He had fifteen bastards, who were all persons of merit. His court was the most brilliant in Europe, and the cities of Antwerp and Bruges, by their extensive commerce, spread plenty over the land. In fine, France was indebted to him for her peace and gran¬ deur, which ever afterward continued to increase, notwithstanding her many adversities, and her wars, domestic and foreign.

Charles VII. recovered his kingdom in much the same manner as Henry IV. conquered it one hundred

38 Ancient and Modern History.

and fifty years afterward. Charles indeed had not that noble courage, that quick and active mind, nor that heroic character which distinguished Henry IV., but, like him, he was frequently obliged to keep fair with his foes as well as with his friends, to fight skirmishes, to take towns, some by surprise and some by money, till at length he entered Paris in the same manner as Henry IV. afterward made his entrance, partly by intrigue and partly by force. They were both declared incapable of wearing the crown, and they both forgave the injuries they had received. They had one common weakness : that of neglecting their affairs sometimes to follow the pur¬ suit of their pleasures.

Charles did not make his entry into Paris till the year 1437, and it was not till 1450 that the English were totally driven out of France. They then retained only Calais and Guines : and forever lost those vast demesnes which their kings had been possessed of by right of blood, and which they could not secure to their posterity by the three great vic¬ tories of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt. The divi¬ sions in England contributed as much as Charles VII. to the re-union of France ; and Henry VI., who had worn the crowns of both kingdoms, and had come to Paris to receive that of France, was dethroned in England by his own relatives, restored again, and again dethroned.

Charles, being now in the peaceable possession of France, established such orders and regularities in

Charles VII.

3V

that country as had never been seen there since the decline of the family of Charlemagne. He kept reg¬ ular companies of fifteen hundred gendarmes. Each of these gendarmes was to serve with six horses, so that every troop was composed of nine thousand horsemen. Every captain of a hundred had seven¬ teen hundred livres a year, which comes to about ten thousand livres of our present currency. Each gendarme had three hundred and sixty livres’ yearly pay, and each of the five men who accompanied him had four livres of the currency of those times a month. He also established a body of forty-five thousand archers, who had each the same allowance of four livres a month, or about twenty-four of the present currency. Thus, in time of peace, these troops cost him five million six hundred thousand livres of our money. Things have changed greatly since that time in Europe. This establishment of archers shows that the use of firearms was not then much known. This instrument of destruction did not come to be commonly used till the time of Louis XI.

Besides these troops, who were in constant service, each village maintained a free archer, who was exempted from the king’s tax; and it was by this exemption, which otherwise was peculiar to the nobility, that such a number of persons soon claimed the title of gentlemen, both by name and arms. The possessors of fiefs were exempt from the ban, which was now no longer called ; there being only an

40 Ancient and Modern History.

arriere-ban, composed of the lesser vassals, who still remained subject to be called upon on these occasions.

It has been a matter of surprise that, after so many disasters, France should still have continued pos¬ sessed of such a number of resources, and so much money. But a country which is rich in natural pro¬ ductions will be ever so, while the cultivation of it is properly attended to. Civil wars, though they shake the body of the state, do not destroy it ; for the murders and ravages which ruin some families, enrich others: and the merchants become better versed in the arts of commerce from the necessity there is of making use of art to protect themselves from the general storm. Jacques Cceur is a strong example of this. This man had established the greatest trade that any one private person in Europe had yet embarked in. Cosmo Medici is the only one who, since his time, ever equalled him in this respect. Jacques Cceur employed three hundred fac¬ tors in Italy and the Levant. He lent two hundred thousand gold crowns to the king, without which he would never have been able to retake Normandy. His industry was more useful during the peace, than either the valor of Dunois, or of the Maid of Orleans, in time of war. It is perhaps one of the greatest blots on the memory of Charles VII. that he suf¬ fered so useful a member of the community to be persecuted. We know not the reason of this; for,

Charles VII.

4i

indeed, who can find out the secret springs of the faults and unjust dealings of men?

The king caused him to be thrown into prison, and he was tried by the parliament. Nothing, how¬ ever, could be proved against him, only that he had caused a Christian slave, who had betrayed and deserted his Turkish master, to be returned to him again, and had sold arms to the sultan of Egypt. For these two actions, one of which was allowable, and the other strictly virtuous, he was condemned to forfeit all his possessions. On this occasion his clerks gave a proof of greater integrity than the courtiers who caused his ruin : almost all of them joined in assisting him in his disgrace. Jacques Cceur afterward retired to Cyprus, where he con¬ tinued to carry on business ; and, though recalled, never again ventured to revisit his ungrateful coun¬ try.

The close of the reign of Charles VII. proved happy enough for France, though very unhappy to this prince himself, whose latter days were embit¬ tered by the rebellion of his unnatural son, after¬ ward Louis XI.

4^

Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER LXIX.

MANNERS, CUSTOMS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES.

Willing to turn from the repetition of so many miseries and mutual quarrels, the dismal objects of history and the commonplaces of human wicked¬ ness ; I shall now examine mankind as members of society, inquire into their private lives, and in what manner the arts were cultivated among them.

Toward the close of the thirteenth century, and in the beginning of the fourteenth, it appears to me, that they began in Italy, notwithstanding the dissen¬ sions which prevailed everywhere, to emerge from that brutality which had in a manner overwhelmed Europe, after the decline of the Roman Empire. The necessary arts had never been entirely lost. The artificers and merchants, whose humble station had protected them from the ambitious fury of the great were like ants, who dug themselves peaceable and secure habitation, while the eagles and vultures of the world were tearing one another to pieces.

Even in these ages of ignorance, we meet with many useful inventions, which were the fruits of that mechanical genius wherewith nature endows certain men, independent of the helps of philosophy. Thus, for example, the secret of assisting the im¬ paired sight of old people, by those glasses called “ besides ” was the production of the latter part of

Manners, Customs, Etc. 43

tne thirteenth century. This noble secret was dis¬ covered by Alexander Spina. Windmills are also of the same date. La Flamma, who lived in the four¬ teenth century, is the first writer in whom we find any mention of them. But this was an art known long before, both to the Greeks and Arabians, and we find it spoken of by the Arabian poets of the seventh century. Earthenware, which then supplied the place of porcelain or china, was invented at Faenza. The use of glass had been known long before ; but that article was scarce, and it was esteemed a kind of luxury to use it. This art was afterward carried into England by the French in 1180, and was then looked upon as an article of great magnificence.

The Venetians were the only people in the thir¬ teenth century who had the secret of making crystal glass for mirrors. In Italy there were some few clocks which went by wheels ; that at Bologna was reckoned the most famous. That miraculous and useful instrument, the compass, owed its invention entirely to chance, and mankind had not their views sufficiently advanced at that time to make a proper use of this discovery. The invention of paper, made of linen rags beaten and boiled together, is of the fourteenth century. The historian, Cortusius of Padua, speaks of one Pax, who established the first paper manufactory in that city, above a century before the invention of printing. In this manner were the useful arts established by degrees, and chiefly by ignorant and illiterate men.

44 Ancient and Modern History.

There were few such cities in all Europe as Ven¬ ice, Genoa, Bologna, Sienna, Pisa, and Florence. Almost all the houses in France, Germany, and England were covered with straw. They were the same in the cities of lesser note in Italy, such as Alexandria de la Paglia, Nioea de la Paglia, etc.

Notwithstanding the vast tracts of uncultivated lands which were wholly covered with wood, they had not yet learned to secure themselves from the cold by the help of chimneys or stoves, which are in use now-a-days in all our apartments, and w'hich serve at once for ornament and convenience. A whole family then were wont to seat themselves around a hearth placed in the middle of the room, from whence a long tunnel ran up through the top of the roof. La Flamma, a writer of the fourteenth century, complains, like most injudicious authors, that, in his time, frugality and simplicity had given way to luxury and extravagance. He regrets the times of Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick II., when in Milan, the capital of Lombardy, they ate meat only thrice a week. Wine was then a rarity. Tapers were not known, and candles were luxurious ornaments. The better sort of inhabitants, accord¬ ing to him, made use of pieces of dried wood, lighted at the fire. They ate hot meat only three times a week; their shirts were of serge, no linen being then worn but by people of great distinction : and the dowry of a daughter of the most considerable citizen did not exceed at most a hundred livres.

Manners, Customs, Etc. 45

“ Things,” adds he, “ are greately changed at pres¬ ent. They now wear linen in common ; the women dress themselves in silken stuffs, and some of them are even mixed with gold and silver : they have now two thousand livres to their portion, and even adorn their ears with gold pendants.” And yet this luxury, of which La Flamma complains so grievously, was far inferior in some respects to what we now look upon as common necessaries for a rich and indus¬ trious tradesman.

Table linen was very scarce in England, and wine was sold only by the apothecaries as a cordial. The houses of private persons, both at Paris and London, were all built of wood; for women to ride in a cart in the streets of Paris, which were then scarcely paved and all covered with mud, was looked upon as an article of luxury, and, as such, forbidden by Philip the Fair. Everyone knows the regulation made under the reign of Charles VI., “Nemo and- eat dare prceter duo fercula cum potagio.” Never¬ theless, in the houses of the lords of fiefs, and the principal prelates, there was always as great mag¬ nificence as the times could afford. This necessarily spread itself among the possessors of large lands : but the use of silver or gold plate was in a manner wholly unknown in most of the cities. Mussus, who was a native of Lombardy, and wrote in the four¬ teenth century, mentions silver forks, spoons, and cups, as very extravagant articles.

“ The master of a family,” says he, “ who has nine

4 6 Ancient and Modern History.

or ten people to maintain, with two horses, is obliged to expend nearly three hundred gold florins a year,” which was about three thousand livres of our present money.

Money therefore was extremely scarce in most parts of Italy, and still more so in France, in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. The people of Florence and Lombardy, who alone carried on the trade with France and England, and the Jews, who were their brokers, had twenty per cent, per annum for the common interest on their money. Excessive usury is an infallible sign of public pov¬ erty.

King Charles V. amassed considerable riches by his good economy, and the prudent managemefit of his demesnes — which were then the only revenues of our kings — and by the imposts which had been devised under Philip of Valois ; which, though trivial in themselves, caused great murmurings among an indigent people. His minister, Cardinal de Gran°-e

o *

had grown too rich. But all these treasures were dispersed in other countries. The cardinal carried his to Avignon, and the duke of Anjou, brother of Charles V., dissipated that prince’s money in his unfortunate expedition into Italy, and France re¬ mained miserably poor till the latter end of the reign' of Charles VII.

But it was not thus in the beautiful and trading cities of Italy. There the people lived in affluence and ease. With them alone the sweets of life seemed

Manners, Customs, Etc. 47

to have taken up their residence, and riches and lib¬ erty inspired their genius, and elevated their courage.

The Italian tongue was not yet formyd in the reign of Frederick II., as we may perceive by some verses of that emperor, which are the last remains we have of the Roman tongue freed from the harsh¬ ness of the German :

“Plas me el cavalier Frances E la donna Catalana E L’ ovrar Genoes E la danza Trevisana E lou cantar Provenzales Las man e car a d’ Angles E lou donzel de T oscana.”

“ I am pleased with the French cavalier, •

And the Catalonian dame,

And the workmanship of Genoa,

And the dancing of Trevisa,

And the poetry of Provence,

The hands and face of an Englishman,

And the damsels of Tuscany.”

These remains are more precious than may per¬ haps be imagined; and infinitely surpass all the rubbish of the middle age, which is so greedily sought after by those of an ignorant and tasteless curiosity, as they prove beyond contradiction that nature has ever been the same in all the nations of which Frederick speaks. The women of Catalonia are now, as in his time, the handsomest in Spain. The French gentry still have the martial air for which they were then famous. The English are still

48 Ancient and Modern History.

commonly known for the nobleness and regularity of their features, and the whiteness of their hands. The young women of Tuscany are still more agree¬ able than those of any other country. The Genoese have preserved their industry : and the inhabitants of Provence, their taste for poetry and music. It was in Provence and Languedoc that the Roman language first received its polish. The Provencals were mas¬ ters to the Italians ; and nothing is better known to the virtuosi in these researches than the follow¬ ing verses, made on the people called Vaudois, in the year noo:

When a man will neither curse, nor swear, nor lie.

Nor slay, nor rob, nor mount his neighbor’s bed.

Nor take fell vengeance of his enemy,

They hold him a Vaudois, and take his life.

This quotation has likewise its use, inasmuch as it is a proof that the reformers of all times have effected a severity of manners.

This jargon unhappily continued to be used, as it was spoken in Provence and Languedoc, till the Italian language, under the pen of Petrarch, received that force and elegance, which, far from degenerat¬ ing, still acquired greater perfection. The Italian took its first form toward the end of the thirteenth century, in the reign of King Roger, father of the unfortunate Joan of Naples. Dante, the Florentine poet, had already adorned the Tuscan tongue by his poem called Comedy ; ’ which, though a whimsical performance, is full of many striking and natural

Manners, Customs, Etc. 49

beauties. In this work the author raised himself above the bad taste of his times and his subject; and we may everywhere find in it, passages written in all the purity and elegance of the later times of Ariosto and Tasso. We cannot wonder that the author, who was one of the chiefs of the Ghibelline faction, and was severely persecuted by Pope Boni¬ face \ III. and Charles of V alois, has in several parts of his poem given vent to the concern he felt for the quarrels between the empire and the pontificate. Permit me in this place to insert a weak translation of one of the passages in Dante, relating to these dissensions. These monuments of the human mind serve to amuse us after a long and painful attention to the miseries which have distracted the earth.

Of old, two suns were seen to blaze In peace profound with genial rays ;

On man’s bewildered race to shine.

And point the paths to truth divine;

The imperial eagle’s rights to show,

And brings the lamb’s just claims to view.

Those skies serene are now no more :

One sun surcharged with vapors hoar,

Launched from his sphere eccentric gleams,

And strives to drink the other’s beams.

Wild anarchy her empire rears ;

A lion fierce the lamb appears,

In robes usurped a tyrant lord To wield the crosier and the sword.

To Dante succeeded Petrarch, born in the year 1304, in Arezzo, the country of the famous Guido Aretin; this poet rendered the Italian tongue more Vol. 26—4

50 Ancient and Modern History.

pure, and gave it all the sweetness of which it was susceptible. In these two poets, and especially in the latter, we meet with a great number of strokes which resemble the beautiful works of the ancients, and have at once all the vigor of antiquity and the freshness of novelty. It may appear rash in me to pretend to imitate this excellent poet, but you will forgive my presumption for the desire I have to make you acquainted as much as possible with the nature of his style. Here follows nearly the begin¬ ning of his beautiful “ Ode to the Fountain of Vau- cluse,” which is indeed irregular, and composed by him in blank verse to avoid the constraint of rhyme, but which nevertheless is more esteemed than those of his pieces which are in rhyme :

“ Pure fountain, by whose purling stream,

That beauty, mistress of my heart,

Whom nature formed above the reach of art.

Avoids at noon the sultry beam ;

O happy tree, whose foliage made.

When fanned by Zephyr’s wing,

For her a cool, refreshing shade.

Ye scenes that her adored idea bring,

And wake the sigh that struggles while I sing ;

Ye gorgeous daughters of the dewy morn,

Who, though less fair than she, these meads adorn, Sweet flowrets, oft beheld with jealous eye,

While borrowing fragrance on her breast you lie ;

Ye nightingales whose warbled strain Would emulate her song in vain ;

Ye breezes that more salutary play,

As o’er her charms with feathered foot you stray ;

O blest retreat, that ages shall revere !

O plain so dreaded, yet so dear !

Manners, Customs, Etc. 51

Where love, with his all-piercing dart,

First triumphed o’er my captive heart;

Receive these tears, these notes by sorrow sung,

While death s cold accents tremble on my tongue.”

These little poems, which are styled Canzoni, are esteemed his masterpieces, his other works having procured him much less honor : here he has immor¬ talized the “ Fountain of Vaucluse,” his mistress, Laura, and himself. Had he never loved, he would never have been so well known. However imperfect the above imitation may be, it serves to show the immense superiority the Italians had over other nations, and I thought it much better to give you this slight idea of Petrarch’s genius, and of that sweet¬ ness and melting elegance which so much distinguish his writings, than to trouble you with a repetition of what so many writers have already related of the honors offered him at Paris, of those conferred on him at Rome, and of his triumph in the Capitol, in 1341, where he received that famous homage which the admiration of his contemporaries paid to a genius then unparalleled, but which was afterward surpassed by that of Ariosto and Tasso. I shall not, however, omit to mention that his family were ban¬ ished from Tuscany, and their estates confiscated, during the dissensions between the Guelphs and Ghibellines ; and that the people of Florence deputed Boccaccio to request him in their name to come and honor his native country with his presence, and enjoy the restitution of his patrimony. Greece, in her

52 Ancient and Modern History.

brightest ages, never gave nobler proofs of a taste and esteem for great talents.

This Boccaccio fixed the Tuscan language, and is still the best model for exactness and purity of style, in prose, as well as for the natural and the narrative. The Italian tongue, thus rendered perfect by these two writers, underwent no further altera¬ tion, while all the other people of Europe, even the Greeks themselves, have changed their idiom.

After this there followed an uninterrupted suc¬ cession of Italian poets, whose works have all been transmitted to posterity. Pulci wrote after Petrarch ; Bayardo, count of Scandiano, succeeded Pulci ; and Ariosto surpassed them all by the fruitfulness of his imagination. Let us not forget that Petrarch and Boccaccio celebrated the unfortunate Joan of Naples, whose cultivated mind was sensible of their merit, and who was herself one of their scholars. She was at that time entirely devoted to the polite arts, and forgot in their bosom the crimes which had embit¬ tered the moments of her first marriage ; and the change which was wrought in her manners by the cultivation of her mind, should have saved her from the tragical end which afterward befell her.

The polite arts, which are, as it were, linked hand in hand, and generally sink and rise again together, first began in Italy to emerge from barbarism. Cim- abue, without any assistance, became anew the inventor of painting in the thirteenth century. Giotto drew pictures which are yet beheld with pleasure.

Manners, Customs, Etc. 53

There is one piece in particular remaining of this famous painter, which has since been copied in mosaic work, and represents the favorite apostle walking upon the waters ; it is to be seen over the great door in St. Peter’s at Rome. Brunelleschi began to reform the Gothic architecture, and Guido of Arezzo had long before, namely, about the end of the eleventh century, invented notes for music, by which he rendered that art more easy and gen¬ erally known.

We are indebted for all these beautiful and new inventions to the Italians alone. They called them all into life again by the sole strength of their genius, before the little science which was left in Constan¬ tinople had ebbed back into Italy with the Greek language, after the Ottoman conquests. Florence was at that time a new Athens, and, among the ora¬ tors who were sent from the Italian cities to compli¬ ment Pope Boniface VIII. on his exaltation to the papal chair, there were no less than eight natives of Florence. By this we may perceive that we do not owe the revival of the polite arts to those who fled into Italy from Constantinople, since these fugitives could at most but teach the Italians the Greek lan¬ guage.

It may appear astonishing that so many great gen¬ iuses should have arisen in Italy in the midst of dis¬ sensions and civil wars, and equally destitute of protection and of models. But let it be remembered that among the Romans Lucretius wrote his beauti-

54 Ancient and Modern History.

ful poem upon natural history, Virgil his “ Bucol¬ ics, and Cicero his books of philosophy, in the midst of all the horrors of civil wars. When once a language begins to take a form, it becomes an instrument which great artists find ready prepared to their hands, and which they employ without con¬ cerning themselves about who governs or disturbs the world.

But although this light seems to have shone only in Italy, yet there were not wanting some persons of talents in other countries. St. Bernard and Abe¬ lard, who lived in France in the twelfth century, may be considered as men of great genius, but their language was a barbarous jargon, and their Latin was a tribute which they paid to the bad taste of the times. The Latin hymns in rhyme, which were composed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, are the very quintessence of barbarism. It was not thus that Horace sung the secular games. The scholastic divinity of those times, which was the bastard offspring of the Aristotelian philosophy, badly translated, and as ill understood, did more injury to understanding and the polite studies than ever the Huns and Vandals had done.

The polite arts were kept alive in the East, and since the poems of the Persian writer Sadi are still in the mouths of Persians, Turks, and Arabians, they must certainly have had some merit. This writer was contemporary with Petrarch, and equal to him in reputation. It is certain that, in general, good

Manners, Customs, Etc.

55

taste was far from being prevalent among the Ori¬ entals. Their works resemble the titles of their monarchs, full of high-sounding epithets. The spirit of slavery and subjection appears to be nat¬ urally dastardly, as that of liberty is nervous, and true greatness simple. The Orientals have no deli¬ cacy, because their women are excluded from society. They have no order or method, because everyone gives freedom to his imagination in that solitude in which they pass the greater part of their lives, and the imagination of itself is always unruly. They have also been always strangers to true eloquence, such as that of Cicero and Demosthenes. For whom had an eastern orator to persuade? a set of slaves. And yet they have several bright gleams of scientific light : they paint in speech ; and although their figures are frequently gigantic and incoherent, they still partake somewhat of the sublime. You may perhaps not be displeased to see again in this place a passage from Sadi, which I formerly translated into blank verse, and which bears a strong resem¬ blance to some passages in the Hebrew poets. It is a description of the power of God, a common-place subject without doubt, but which may serve to give you an idea of the Persian genius.

He knows distinctly what is yet to come,

His ear is filled with sounds as yet unformed. Sovereign of all, he asks no bended knee,

Immortal judge, he needs no written law.

By the eternal fulness of his foresight,

As with a ready pencil, he has traced

5 6 Ancient and Modern History.

The infant features in the mother’s womb.

By him conducted through his bright career.

Safely the sun journeys from east to west.

He sows the flinty bosoms of the hills With the rich ruby, and the sapphire blue.

Two drops of water, in his plastic hand,

Take different forms, as suit his high behest;

This breathes a man; that, sinking to the deep. Rounds in its oozy bed an orient pearl.

Creation at his bidding rose to light,

And shall, if he commands, again retire Back to the immense vacuity of space;

Or if he speaks, lo ! quicker than the word.

The obedient universe once more starts forth From deepest chaos, to the realms of being.

If the belles-lettres were thus cultivated on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, it is a certain proof that the other arts which minister to our pleasures were very well known. The superfluities of life follow only after the knowledge of the neces¬ saries : but this was still wanting almost throughout Europe. What did they know in Germany, France, England, Spain, and the northern parts of Lom¬ bardy? Nothing but barbarous and feudal customs equally tumultuous and uncertain, duels, tourna¬ ments, scholastic divinity, and magic.

They still celebrated in several churches the fes¬ tival of the ass, and that of the innocents and fools. An ass was brought before the altar, and the people sang the whole anthem to him: “Amen, Amen, Asine; eh, eh, eh, Mr. Ass! eh, eh, eh, Mr. Ass.” A company of fools marched at the head of every procession in plaited gowns, hung round with bells

Manners, Customs, Etc. 57

and baubles, and this fashion is still kept up in some towns of the Low Countries, and in Germany. As to our northern nations, all their literature consisted in certain farces, written and exhibited in the vulgar tongue, with the titles of “ The Foolish Mother,” “ The Prince of Fools,” etc.

Nothing was to be heard but stories of revelation, people possessed by evil spirits and fascinations : and to such lengths did the prejudices of those times carry men, that Philip III.’s queen being accused of adultery, the king sent to consult a Beguine, to know whether his wife was guilty or innocent. The children of Philip the Fair entered into an asso¬ ciation in writing by which they engaged mutually to defend one another against anyone who should attempt to destroy them by magic. There was a decree of parliament, condemning a woman to be burned for a witch who was accused of having entered into compact with the devil, in favor of Rob¬ ert of Artois. The disorder of Charles VI. was attributed to magic, and a supposed conjurer was sent for to cure him. The princess of Gloucester in England, was condemned to dov penance in the porch of St. Paul’s church ; and a baroness of the same kingdom, her supposed accomplice, was burned alive for a witch.

If the most considerable personages of the king¬ doms of Europe fell victims to these cruelties, which were the offspring of credulity, we may easily sup-

58 Ancient and Modern History.

pose what private persons were subject to. But these were slight evils.

In Germany, France, Spain, and even in Italy, except in the large trading cities, they were entirely destitute of any form of civil government : the walled towns in Germany and France were all sacked during the civil wars ; the Greek Empire was over¬ run by the Turks; Spain was still divided between the Christians and the Mahometan Moors, and each side was frequently torn in pieces by its own intes¬ tine commotions. At length, in the reign of Philip of Valois, Edward III., Louis of Bavaria, and Pope Clement VI., a general plague swept away those who had escaped the sword and the miseries of their country.

Immediately preceding these times of the four¬ teenth century, our Europe was, as we have already seen, depopulated and impoverished by the Cru¬ sades. If we go back from these Crusades to the times which followed after the death of Charlemagne we shall find them not less unhappy, and still more ignorant. The comparison of those ages with our own should fill us with a due sense of the happiness we now enjoy, notwithstanding the almost invincible propensity we have to admire and praise the past at the expense of the present.

But we must not believe that all was alike savage. There were several great examples of virtue in all stations, on the throne and in the cloister, among the swordsmen and the priests. But neither a St.

Manners, Customs, Etc. 59

Louis nor a St. Ferdinand could heal the wounds of humankind. The long dispute between the emperors and the popes, the obstinate stand made by the Roman liberty against the power of the Ger¬ man Caesars, and that of the Roman pontiffs, the frequent schisms, and at length the great schism of the West, would not permit those popes, elected in the midst of tumults, to exercise those virtues with which more happy and peaceable times might have probably inspired them ; and, indeed, might it not be possible for the general depravity of man¬ ners to extend its influence even to them? Every man is formed by the age he lives in, and few are there who can rise above the manners of the times. The wicked actions which many of the popes com¬ mitted, and the scandalous lives they led upon the authority of general example are things which can never be buried in oblivion. But of what service is it to set forth their vices and their disasters ; to show how happy Rome has been, since decency and tranquillity have reigned within her walls? And what more desirable fruit can we reap from all the vicissitudes we meet with in this general history than the conviction that every nation has always been unhappy till the laws and the legislative power were established by universal consent?

In like manner as some few monarchs and pontiffs, worthy of better times, could not stop the general torrent of disorder, so neither could a few fine

60 Ancient and Modern History.

geniuses, born in the darkness of the northern nations, allure to those climates the arts and sciences.

Charles V., king of France, who made a collection of over nine hundred volumes, at least a century before the Vatican library was founded by Nicholas V., in vain endeavored to encourage learning in his kingdom. The soil was not yet prepared for bearing those exotic fruits. There has been a collection of some of the wretched productions of those times : this is like collecting a heap of flints from the rub¬ bish of an old house, when we are surrounded by beautiful palaces. Charles was obliged to send to Pisa for an astrologer ; and Catherine, the daughter of this astrologer, who wrote in French, pretends that Charles expressed himself thus : “ While learn¬ ing is honored in this kingdom, it will continue to flourish.” But learning was unknown, and taste yet more so ; the French having only the advantage of a more showy outside than other nations.

When Charles of Valois, brother to Philip the Fair, went into Italy, the inhabitants of Lombardy, and even those of Tuscany, took the fashions of the French. These were rather extravagancies than fashion. The coat was laced behind in the same manner as the women’s stays now are, with large hanging-down sleeves, and a riding cloak that trailed upon the ground. The French gentlemen, however, gave a certain grace to this odd kind of masquerade, and justified what Frederic II. had said: “ Plas me el cavalier Frances. It would, however, have been

Privileges of Towns. 61

much better for France, had they understood more of military discipline ; the kingdom would not then have fallen a prey to a foreign power, as it did under the reign of Philip of Valois, John, and Charles VI. But how happened it that the English were so much better versed in martial discipline than their neigh¬ bors ? Probably for the reason that, being frequently obliged to fight at a distance from their own coun¬ try, they found they stood in greater need of such knowledge ; or rather because they have a more cool and deliberate courage.

CHAPTER LXX.

ENFRANCHISEMENTS, PRIVILEGES OF TOWNS, STATES-

GENERAL.

From the general anarchy of Europe, and the num¬ berless disasters in which it was involved, arose the inestimable blessing of liberty, which has gradually made the imperial and other cities rich and flour¬ ishing.

You may already have observed, that in the begin¬ ning of the feudal anarchy the cities were almost all peopled with bondmen rather than citizens, as is still the case in Poland, where there are not above three or four cities which have the liberty of holding lands ; and the inhabitants all belong to their lord, who has power of life and death over them. It was the same in France and Germany. The emperors began by granting enfranchisements to several cities ;

61 Ancient and Modern History.

and as early as the thirteenth century the cities joined together for their common defence against the lords of castles, who lived upon plunder.

Louis the Fat, of France, followed this example in the places within his domains, in order to weaken the lords who were up in arms against him. The lords themselves sold freedoms to the small towns which were in their demesnes, for money to support the honor of chivalry in the Holy Land.

At length, in 1167, Pope Alexander III. declared in the name of a council, that all Christians ought to be exempt from servitude. This law is alone suf¬ ficient to render his memory dear to the people of all nations ; as his endeavors to maintain the liberty of Italy ought to make his name precious to the Italians.

It was in virtue of this law that a long time after¬ wards King Louis Hutin declared in his charters, that all the bondmen then remaining in France should be free ; “ Because,” says he, “ it is the kingdom of the Franks.” He made them indeed pay for this freedom ; but could such a blessing be bought too dear ?

Nevertheless, mankind were reinstated but by degrees, and with great difficulty, in their natural rights. Louis Hutin could not oblige the lords, his vassals, to do for the subjects of their demesnes that which he had done for his. The husbandmen and even the burghers remained for a long time a pow¬ erful body of men, wholly attached to tillage, as they still are in many provinces in Germany : and it was

Privileges of Towns. 63

not till the reign of Charles VII. that servitude was entirely abolished in France, by the weakening of the power of the lords. The English contributed greatly to this happy change, by bringing over with them that spirit of freedom which is their distinguishing character.

Even before the time of Louis Hutin, the kings of * France had ennobled some citizens. Philip the Bold, son of St. Louis, ennobled Raoul, commonly called Raoul the Goldsmith; not from his being an arti¬ ficer, for then his nobility would have been ridicu¬ lous, but as being the keeper of the king’s money ; for cash-keepers were generally called goldsmiths, as they still are in London, where they have retained many of the ancient customs of France.

The corporations of towns were first admitted in France into the general assembly of the estates by Philip the Fair, in 1301 : these assemblies then held the place of the ancient parliaments of the nation, formerly composed of lords and prelates. The third estate gave their advice in the form of a petition, which was presented upon the knee ; and the custom is still kept up for the third estate to address the king on one knee, in the same manner as the lawyers do at a bar of justice. The first general assembly of the estates was held to oppose the pretensions of Pope Boniface VIII. It must be acknowledged that it was a melancholy circumstance for human nature, that there were but two orders in the state, the one composed of the lords of fiefs, who did not make the

64 Ancient and Modern History.

five-thousandth part of the nation ; and the other of the clergy, who were still an inferior number, and who, from the nature of their holy institution, were destined to a superior function, entirely foreign to temporal matters. The body of the nation had been ignored. This was one of the true causes of the languid state of the kingdom of France, by sup¬ pressing all industry. Had the body of the state in England and Holland been composed only of secular and ecclesiastical barons, those people would never, during the war in 1701, have held the balance of Europe in their own hands.

Philip the Fair, who has been reproached for his malpractices with respect to the coin, his persecution of the Knights Templars, and perhaps a too bitter animosity to Pope Boniface VIII. and his memory, did great service to the nation, in calling the third estate to the general assemblies of France.

The House of Commons in England began to assume shape about this time, and stood in great credit in 1300. Thus the chaos of government began to be cleared up almost everywhere, by the very mis¬ fortunes which the feudal government had every¬ where occasioned. But although the people thus resumed their liberties and the enjoyment of so many privileges, it was a considerable time before they were able to emerge from the barbarism and brutality to which they had been reduced, and which is the consequence of a long state of slavery. They were now indeed free, and were looked upon as men ;

Taxes and Coins.

65

but still they became neither more civilized nor more industrious. The bloody wars of Edward III. and Henry V. plunged the people of France into a state worse than slavery ; and they did not begin to recover themselves again till the reign of Charles VII. The English people were not much happier after the death of Henry V. Those in Germany were in a better situation during the reigns of the emperors Wenceslaus and Sigismund, because the imperial cities had then acquired a degree of credit and power.

CHAPTER LXXI.

TAXES AND COINS.

The third estate was of no other use in the general assembly of the estates held by Philip of Valois, in 1345, than to give its consent to the first imposition of aids and gabelles : but it is certain that if the estates had been assembled more frequently in F ranee, they would have acquired more authority; for under the administration of this same Philip of Valois, which became odious by the bad state of the coin, and greatly discredited by its misfortunes, the estates, in 1355, of themselves appointed com¬ missioners from the three orders to collect the money they had granted the king. Those who give what they please, and as they please, are certainly sharers in the sovereign authority. It was for this reason

that the kings convoked these assemblies as seldom Vol. 26 — 5

66 Ancient and Modern History.

as possible, and only when they could not avoid it. Thus from the nation being so little accustomed to examine into its wants, its resources, and its strength, the states-general were wanting in that spirit of con¬ nection, and the knowledge of business which settled and regular bodies have. Being called together only at long intervals, they were obliged to inquire of one another concerning the laws and customs, instead of proceeding to settle them, and were in a continual state of surprise and uncertainty. The parliaments of England have taken greater prerogatives to them¬ selves, and have established and maintained them¬ selves in the right of being the natural representa¬ tives of the nation. This alone may show us the difference between the two people : both set out upon the same principles, and yet the form of their gov¬ ernment is now entirely different. At that time it was exactly the same. The estates of Aragon, those of Hungary, and the German diets have like¬ wise very great privileges.

The states-general of France, or. rather of that part of France which fought for the lawful sov¬ ereign, Charles VII., against the usurper Henry V., generously granted their royal master a general tax in 1426, in the very height of the war, and in a time of great scarcity, when they were apprehensive that the lands must have lain uncultivated for want of men. 1 his tax has since become perpetual. The kings before them were wont to live upon their own demesnes : but Charles VII. had lost almost all his,

Taxes and Coins.

67

and had it not been for the brave warriors who sac¬ rificed themselves for him and for their country, and for his constable, Count de Richemont, by whom

he was wholly directed, he must have been lost him¬ self.

Soon afterward the husbandmen, who had hitherto paid taxes to their lords, whose bondmen they were, now P<dd this tribute only to the king-, whose subjects they were, not but that the king's of France had, even before the time of St. Louis, raised taxes in the lands belonging- to the royal patrimony. We know of the tax of bread and wine paid at first in kind, and afterward in money. The French term tattle came from the custom the collectors had of marking upon a small wooden tally the sums paid by the persons assessed ; for very few of the common people knew how to write. The very customs of the towns were not in writing; and this same Charles VII. was the first who ordered them to be enrolled in 1454, when he had restored peace and a police to his kingdom, of which it had been so long deprived, and when so long a series of misfortunes had given rise to a new form of government.

Here, then, I consider in general the fate of the people rather than the revolutions of kingdoms. Mankind should be the chief object of our attention in history ; and here it is that every writer ought to say “ homo sum; ” but most of our historians have busied themselves rather in descriptions of battles.

68 Ancient and Modern History.

There was yet another thing which disturbed the public order and tranquillity of Europe, and injured the fortunes of private families ; this was the adul¬ teration of the coin. Every lord coined money, and changed at pleasure the nominal value and weight ; thus doing himself a lasting prejudice for the sake of a temporary advantage. The necessity of the times had obliged the kings to set this fatal exam¬ ple. I have already remarked that the gold specie of one part of Europe, and especially of France, had been swallowed up in Asia and Africa in the unfor¬ tunate projects of the Crusades. It was necessary, therefore, in a time of need to increase the numerical value of the money. In the time of Charles V., after he had reduced his kingdom to obedience, the livre was worth seven numerical livres ; under Charle¬ magne it was of the real weight of one pound. The livre of Charles V., then, was in fact but the seventh part of the old livre ; therefore an income which con¬ sisted in rent charge, an enfeoffment, or dues payable in silver, was by this means reduced to the seventh part of its original value.

We may judge from a still more striking example, of the small quantity of money that was circulating in such a kingdom as France. This same Charles V. declared the children of France entitled to an appa¬ nage of twelve thousand livres a year. These twelve thousand livres are worth at present no more than twenty-four thousand livres. How poor a provision

Taxes and Coins.

69

for a king s son ! The scarcity of specie was equally great in Germany, Spain, and England.

King Edward III. was the first who struck gold coin. Let it be considered that the Romans had no gold coin till six hundred and fifty years after the founding of their republic.

The whole revenues of Henry V. did not amount to more than fifty-six thousand pounds sterling, which is about twelve hundred thousand livres of the present French currency; yet with this trifling resource did he attempt the conquest of France. Nay, after the battle of Agincourt he was obliged to return to England, to borrow money of the city of London, and to put everything in pledge to raise supplies for carrying on the war. And in fact his conquests were made rather with the sword than with money.

In Sweden there was in those times no other money than what was made of iron or copper. There was but a very small quantity of silver in Denmark, and that was brought into the country by the trade carried on with Liibeck.

In this general scarcity of money, which was se¬ verely felt in France after the Crusades, King Philip the Fair not only raised the fictitious and ideal price of specie, but he also caused a quantity of bad money to be coined, in which was mixed an over¬ proportion of alloy. In a word, it was a kind of counterfeit coin ; and these proceedings raised sedi¬ tions among the people, which rendered the nation

7 o Ancient and Modern History.

very unhappy. Philip of Valois went still farther than Philip the Fair; for he made the officers of his mint swear upon the gospels to keep the secret, and enjoined them by an ordinance to impose upon the merchants, “And in such manner that they may not discover that there is any alteration in the weight.” These are his own words. But how could he flatter himself that this piece of injustice would remain concealed ? and what times were those in which they were forced to have recourse to such artifices — times in which almost all the lords of fiefs since the reign of St. Louis had followed the same practices, for which Philip the Fair and Philip of \ alois were so much blamed ? The French lords sold the king their right of coinage; but those in Germany have still preserved theirs : this has sometimes given rise to great abuses, but not so universal nor so fatal as those in France.

CHAPTER LXXII.

THE PARLIAMENT TILL THE REIGN OF CHARLES VII.

Philip the Fair, who was the cause of so many evils, by adulterating the good coin of St. Louis, did the state great service in calling to the general assemblv of the nation the citizens, who are in fact the body of the nation ; nor did he procure it a less advantage by instituting a sovereign court of judicature, to be held at Paris under the name of parliament.

The Parliament.

7i

What has been hitherto said concerning the origin and nature of the Parliament of Paris affords but very confused ideas of the matter, because the change of old customs into new is apt to escape the attention. One writer will have it, that the courts of inquests and requests exactly represent the courts held by the ancient conquerors of Gaul. Another pretends that the parliament derives its right of judicature wholly from the ancient peers, who were the judges of the nation ; and that the parliament is called the court of peers.

Thus much is certain, that there occurred a great change in the French government, under Philip the Fair, at the beginning of the fourteenth century. 1. The great feudal and aristocratic form of gov¬ ernment was gradually undermined in the royal demesnes. 2. Philip the Fair, almost at the same time erected what we call the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, and Normandy, and the extraordinary courts of Troyes as courts of justice. 3. The Par¬ liament of Paris became the most considerable on account of its large extent of district. 4. Philip the Fair fixed its seat at Paris. 5. It was made a perpetual court by Philip the Long, and became the trustee and interpreter of the old and new laws, the guardian of the rights of the crown, and the great oracle of the nation.

The king’s privy council, the states-general, and the parliament were three very different things. The states-general were really and truly the ancient par-

7 2 Ancient and Modern History.

liament of the whole nation ; to which were added the deputies of the commons.

The king’s privy council was composed of such great officers of the state as he pleased to admit, and particularly of the peers of the kingdom, who were all princes of the blood. And the court of justice, known by the name of parliament, now fixed at Paris, was at first composed of bishops and knights, assisted by others of the professed and lay clergy, who had a knowledge of civil matters.

The peers had doubtless a right to sit in that court, as being the original judges of the nation : but even supposing them not to have this right, it would be no less a high court of judicature ; in the same man¬ ner as the imperial chamber in Germany is a high court, although neither the electors nor the other princes of the empire ever assisted at it ; and as the Council of Castile is still a supreme court, although

the grandees of Spain have not the privilege of a seat therein.

The parliament is not the same as the ancient assemblies held in the fields in the months of March and May, although it still retains the same name. The peers had indeed a right to assist at those assem¬ blies ; but these peers were not, as in England, the only nobles of the kingdom. They were princes who held their honors from the crown ; and when any new peers were to be made, they could be taken only from among these princes. Champagne having ceased to be a peerage, when Philip the Fair got it

The Parliament.

73

in dowry with his wife, he erected Brittany and Artois into peerages. Now the sovereigns of these states certainly never came to try causes in the Par¬ liament of Paris, although many of the bishops did. This new parliament at its first institution met four times a year. The members of this court were fre¬ quently changed, and were paid out of the king’s treasury for the seats they vacated.

These parliaments were called sovereign courts, and the president was styled the sovereign of the body, which signifies no more than the head or chief, as may be proved by the very words of an ordinance made by Philip the Fair, viz. : “ That no master shall presume to absent himself from the court without the permission of his sovereign.” I must here observe, that no one was permitted to plead by proxy, but was to appear before the court in person, unless the king’s express dispensation was first obtained.

If the prelates had preserved their right of assist¬ ing at the sittings of this perpetual assembly, it would then have become a perpetual assembly of states-general. The bishops were excluded from this assembly by Philip the Long in 1320. At first they presided in the parliament, and took the place of the chancellor. The first layman who sat as president in this court, by order from the king, in 1320, was a count of Boulogne. The gentlemen of the law had only the title of counsellors till the year 1350. After that, when the civilians became presidents, they wore

74 Ancient and Modern History.

the knight’s mantle, had the privileges of nobility, and were frequently styled chevaliers es loix, or knights at law. But the nobles by name and arms always affected to show a contempt for this pacific body of nobility. The descendants of professors of the law are to this day excluded from a seat in the chapters of Germany. It is a relic of ancient barbar¬ ity to annex a contemptuous idea to the most noble function of humanity, that of distributing justice.

It was in this perpetual parliament, which sat at Paris in St. Louis’s palace, that Charles VI. held, on Dec. 23, 1420, that famous bar of justice, at which Henry V., king of England, was present, whom on that occasion, Charles styled his well-beloved son, Henry VI., hereditary regent of the kingdom ; and at the same time the king’s own son was called Charles, styling himself the dauphin; and all the accomplices in the murder of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, were declared guilty of high treason, and deprived of all right of inheritance, which was in fact condemning the dauphin without naming him.

But what is still more, it is affirmed that in the registers of parliament, in the year 1420, there is an entry, importing that the dauphin — afterward Charles VII. — having been previously summoned three times by sound of trumpet to surrender him¬ self in the month of January, had been condemned for contumacy, and adjudged to perpetual exile, from which sentence, adds the register, “ He

The Parliament.

75

appealed to God and his sword.” If this register is authentic, there was an interval of almost a year between this sentence and the holding of the court, which afterward confirmed but too strongly this fatal decree. It is, however, not at all surprising that they issued such an arret; for Philip, duke of Burgundy, son of the murdered duke, was all- powerful in Paris, and the dauphin’s mother had become an implacable enemy of her own son ; the king had lost his reason, and was in the hands of strangers ; and, in short, the dauphin had punished one crime by another still more horrible ; for he had caused his relation, John of Burgundy, to be assas¬ sinated in his own presence, after having drawn him thither upon the faith of the most solemn oaths. We should also consider what the temper of the times then was. This same Henry V., king of England and regent of France, had been imprisoned at Lon¬ don, while prince of Wales, by the sole authority of a common judge, whom he had struck in open court while in the execution of his office.

This century furnishes us with another shocking instance of justice, carried even to a degree of hor¬ ror. A ban of Croatia condemned Elizabeth, queen regent of Hungary, to be drowned for being con¬ cerned in the murder of Charles de Durazzo, king of Naples.

The sentence of the parliament against the dau¬ phin was of another kind ; it was only an instru¬ ment acting under a superior power. They did not

76 Ancient and Modern History.

proceed against John, duke of Burgundy, till he assassinated the duke of Orleans, and then it was only to avenge the murder of a murderer.

In reading the deplorable history of those times, we are to recollect that after the famous Treaty of Troyes, which gave the kingdom of France to Henry V. of England, there were two parliaments in the kingdom assembled at the same time, as again hap¬ pened some three hundred years afterward in the time of the league ; but during the subversion of the government under Charles VI. there were two kings, two queens, two parliaments, two universities of Paris, and each side had its marshals and great officers of state.

I must observe furthermore, that in these times, when a peer of the kingdom was to be tried, the king was obliged to preside in person at the trial. Charles VII., in the last year of his reign, did, in compliance with this custom, sit as president of the judges who condemned the duke of Alenqon ; a custom which afterward came to be looked upon as derogatory to justice and the royal dignity, since the presence of the sovereign might seem to influence the votes ; and that in a criminal affair, that presence which should only be the dispenser of grace and favors, might be obliged to become the inflicter of punishments.

Lastly, I shall remark, that, in the trial of a peer, it was necessary that the whole body of peers should be assembled, as being his natural judges. To these Charles VII., in the affair of the duke of Alenqon,

The Parliament.

77

added the great officers of the crown. He did still more ; for he admitted into this assembly the treas¬ urers of France, and the lay-deputies of the parlia¬ ment. Thus do all things change ; and the history of customs, laws, and privileges is in many countries, and especially in France, only a moving picture.

It is therefore an idle project, and an ungrateful task, to endeavor to refer everything to ancient cus¬ toms, or to fix that wheel which time is eternally whirling around with an irresistible motion. To what era must we go back? To that when the word “ parliament ” signified an assembly of the leaders of the Franks, who met together on the first day of March, to settle the division of spoils ? Or to that in which all the bishops had a right to sit in a court of justice known also by the name of parlia¬ ment ? Or to the times when the barons held the com¬ mons in a state of slavery? To what age, I say, or what laws, must we go back? What custom must we abide by? A citizen of Rome might, with as great certainty, ask the pope for the same consuls, the same tribunes, the same senate, and the same comitia; nay, for the very self-same form of gov¬ ernment which prevailed in the ancient Roman republic ; or a citizen of Athens demand of the sul¬ tan the ancient Areopagus, and assemblies of the people.

78 Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER LXXIII.

THE COUNCIL OF BASEL, HELD IN THE TIME OF CHARLES VII.

What the states-general are to kings, such are councils to the popes ; but those things which have the nearest resemblance to one another frequently differ the most. In those monarchies where the repub¬ lican spirit was the most prevalent, the estates never thought themselves superior to their kings ; although they may have deposed them in a time of urgent necessity and disorder. The electors who deposed the emperor Wenceslaus never looked upon them¬ selves as superior to an emperor in possession of the royal authority. The Cortes of Aragon told the king whom they elected, “ Nos que valemos tanto como vos, y que podemos mas que vos” but when the king was crowned, they no longer expressed themselves in that manner, nor pretended to be superior to the person whom they had made master over them.

But it is not the same with an assembly of bishops of a number of churches equally independent, as it is with the body of a monarchical state. This body has a sovereign, and the churches have only one chief metropolitan. But matters of religion, and the doctrine and discipline of the Church can never be subject to the decision of a single person, in contra¬ diction to the whole world besides. The councils therefore are superior to the popes, in the same sense

Council of Basel.

79

as the opinions of a thousand persons ought to be deemed superior to that of a single one. It remains then to know whether these councils have the same right of deposing the head of the Church, as the diets of Poland and the electors of the Germanic Empire have of deposing their sovereign.

This is one of those questions which are to be decided only by the argument a fortiori. If, on the one hand, a simple provincial synod has the power of divesting a common bishop of his dignities ; by a much stronger reason can the assembly of the whole Christian world degrade the bishop of Rome. But again, on the other hand, this bishop is a sovereign prince, and did not receive his dignity from a coun¬ cil : how then can the council pretend to take it from him, especially if his own subjects are satisfied with his administration? It would be in vain for all the bishops of the world to depose from his episcopal function an ecclesiastical elector, with whom the empire and his own electorate were satisfied : he would still continue to be an elector, and enjoy all his rights as such; just as a king, excommunicated by ecclesiastical censure, would, if master in his kingdom, continue to be the sovereign of that king¬ dom.

The Council of Constance deposed the sovereign of Rome, because the people of Rome neither would nor could oppose its proceedings. The Council of Basel, which pretended ten years afterward to follow the same example, gave a proof how little example

8o

Ancient and Modern History.

is to be relied upon, and how greatly affairs, which are seemingly alike, may differ ; and also that what may be a great and exemplary boldness at one time, may appear rash and weak at another.

The Council of Basel was only a prolongation of several others, proclaimed by Pope Martin V., at dif¬ ferent times, at Pavia and at Sienna. But as soon as Pope Eugenius IV. was elected, in 1431, the fathers began by declaring that the pope had neither the right of dissolving their assembly, nor yet of remov¬ ing its seat; and that he was subject to them, under pain of punishment. Pope Eugenius immediately upon this declaration ordered the council to be dis¬ solved. There seems to have been more zeal than prudence in this precipitate step taken by the fathers, and a zeal that might have had fatal consequences.

Emperor Sigismund, who was then reigning, was not master of the person of Eugenius, as he had been of that of John XXIII. He therefore kept fair at once with both pope and council. This scandalous business was for a long time confined to negotiations, in which both the whole eastern and western churches were made parties. The Greek Empire was no longer in a condition to make head against the Turk, without the assistance of the Latin princes. It was necessary therefore for the Greek Church, if it was desirous of obtaining this weak support, to submit to that of Rome : but it was far from enter¬ taining such a thought ; and the more pressing the danger grew, the more obstinate were the Greeks.

Council of Basel.

8 1

But the emperor, John Palseologus, who was prin¬ cipally affected by this danger, consented out of pol¬ icy to that which his clergy refused through obsti¬ nacy, and was ready to grant everything, provided he might but obtain some assistance. He therefore addressed himself, at the same time, to the pope and to the council, who each of them disputed the honor of humbling the Greeks. John sent ambassadors to Basel, where the pope had some partisans of greater abilities than the rest of the fathers. The council had decreed that a sum of money should be sent to the emperor, with a few galleys to bring him over to Italy ; and that he should have reception in the city of Basel. The pope’s emissaries privately framed another decree, by which it was declared, in the name of the council, that they would receive the emperor at Florence, whither the pope would have the assem¬ bly removed : they also found means to open the lock of the casket in which the seal of the council was kept, with which they sealed this decree, so opposite to the true one made by the council, to which they signed the names of the fathers. This Italian trick succeeded ; and it was plain that after this the pope would have the advantage in every¬ thing over the council.

This assembly had no chief capable of uniting them and crushing the pope, as that of Constance had. Neither had it any determinate point in view; but acted with so little prudence that in a memorial which the fathers delivered to the Greek ambassa-

Vol. 26—6

82 Ancient and Modern History.

dors, they declared, that having' already destroyed the heresy of the Hussites, they were now going to destroy the heresy of the Greek Church. The pope, on the contrary, was more artful, and managed the negotiation on his side with more address ; he breathed nothing but brotherly love and union, and never spoke of the Greeks but in the gentlest terms. Eugenius was a person of great prudence; he had appeased the troubles in Rome, and was very power¬ ful. He took care to have his galleys ready before those of the council.

The emperor embarked at the pope’s expense, tak¬ ing with him his patriarch, and a few chosen bishops who were willing to renounce all the tenets of the Greek Church for the interest of their country. The pope received them at Ferrara ; and the emperor and his bishops, in the midst of their real submission, preserved in appearance the imperial majesty, and the dignity of the Greek Church. No one of them kissed the pope’s feet ; but, after some few alterca¬ tions about the filioque proccssit , which had for a long time been added by the Church of Rome to the ancient homily, the unleavened bread, and the doctrine of purgatory, they conformed to all the Romish tenets.

The pope now removed his council from Ferrara to Florence ; and here it was that the deputies of the Greek Church admitted the doctrine of purgatory. In this council it was determined that “ the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son by the

Council of Basel.

83

production of spiration; that the Father communi¬ cates the whole of His divine essence to the Son, excepting only His fatherhood; and that the pro¬ ductive power is given to the Son from all eternity.”

At length the Greek emperor, with his patriarch, and almost all the other prelates, subscribed at Flor¬ ence to the long-disputed point of the primacy of the bishop of Rome.

This union of the Latins and Greeks was indeed but transitory. The whole Greek Church disowned what had been done ; but still the pope’s victory was no less glorious, and never had any pontiff before him the appearance of enjoying so complete a tri¬ umph.

At the very time that he was rendering this essen¬ tial service to the Latins, and putting an end, as far as in him lay, to the schism between the eastern and western churches, he was, in 1419, by the Council of Basel, deposed from the pontificate, and declared “ a rebel, a simonist, a schismatic, a heretic, and guilty of perjury.”

If we judge of this council from this decree, it will appear no better than a company of factious spirits : but if we consider the excellent rules for discipline which it instituted, it will then appear an assembly of the wisest men ; and for this reason, that passion had no part in its regulations, but was confined wholly to the deposition of Eugenius. The most august body, when led away by faction, always commits greater faults than a single person. Charles

84 Ancient and Modern History.

VII. ’s council in France adopted the prudent regula¬ tions of this council, and rejected that decree which had been dictated by the spirit of party.

These were the regulations which served to com¬ pose the pragmatic sanction, which has been so long the darling of the people of France, that made by St. Louis being no longer in force. The customs which they had vainly attempted to renew in France were utterly abolished by the address of the Romans. They were now established by this famous prag¬ matic sanction. The elections made by the clergy, with the approbation of the king, were confirmed ; the custom of annates was declared simony, and reservation and reversions had in execration. But, on the one hand, they never ventured to do all that they might, and, on the other hand, they never did what they should have done. This celebrated law, by which the liberties of the Gallican Church are secured, allows of a final appeal to the pope, who in that case may depute judges to preside in all ecclesi¬ astical causes, which might easily be compromised by the bishops of the country. This was in some measure acknowledging the pope for master: and at the same time that this pragmatic law confers on him the chief of all prerogatives, it forbids him to make any more than twenty-four cardinals, with just as much reason as the pope would have to limit the number of dukes and peers of France, and grandees of Spain. 1 hus the whole is a contradic¬ tion.

Council of Basel.

85

The regulations established by this council also gave rise to the Germanic concordat; the prag¬ matic law has been abolished in France, and the Ger¬ manic concordat still continues in force, as indeed all the German customs have done. The election of prelates, the investitures of princes, the privileges of towns, rights, rank, and order of precedency, are almost all the same as they originally were. On the contrary, there are none of the customs of Charles VII. now remaining in France.

The Council of Basel having in vain deposed a pope, who on account of his worth and abilities con¬ tinued to be acknowledged by all Europe, after¬ ward set up in opposition to him a mere phantom. This was Amadeus VIII., duke of Savoy, who was the first of his family who had borne the title of duke, and afterward turned hermit at Ripaille, from a motive of devotion which Poggio is far from thinking real. Be that as it may, his devotion could not hold out against the temptation of being made pope. Accordingly he was declared supreme pon¬ tiff, though a layman ; but that which had occasioned a violent schism and the most bloody wars in the time of Urban VI., now only produced a few ecclesiastical disputes, bulls, censures, mutual excommunications, and violent invectives : for as the council had called Eugenius simonist, schismatic, heretic, and perjured, Eugenius’ secretary returned the abuse, by styling the fathers fools, madmen, and barbarians; and Amadeus, Cerberus, and Antichrist. In fine, in the

86 Ancient and Modern History.

papacy of Nicholas V. this council dispersed gradu¬ ally of itself ; and this pope hermit, duke of Savoy, contented himself with a cardinal’s hat, and left the Church in its usual tranquillity.

On the whole, this council is a proof of how greatly affairs change with the times. The fathers of the Council of Constance condemned John Huss and Jerome of Prague to the stake, notwithstanding their declaration of not adhering to the doctrine of Wycliffe, and the clear explanation they gave of the real presence, merely for persisting in the sentiments of Wycliffe relating to the Church hierarchy and discipline.

The Hussites, in the time of the Council of Basel, went much greater lengths than the founders of their sect had done ; Procopius, surnamed the Shaven, the famous general, and successor of John Ziska, came to hold a disputation at this council, at the head of two hundred gentlemen of his party. He maintained, among other things, that “ monks were an invention of the devil,” and thus he offered to prove it : “ Can you say,” said he, “ that they were instituted by Jesus Christ?” "We cannot,” answered Cardinal Julian. “ Well, then,” replied Procopius, “ it is clear it must have been by the devil." An argument truly worthy of a Bohemian captain in those days. yEneas Silvius, who was witness to this scene, says that they only answered Procopius by a general laugh ; the Council of Constance answered John Huss and Jerome of Prague by a sentence of death.

87

Fall of the Greek Empire.

We have seen how low the Greek emperors had fallen, during this council. They must have been approaching very near to ruin, when they went like beggars to Rome to sue for a feeble support, and sac¬ rificed their religion to obtain it. Accordingly, a few years afterward, they were wholly subdued by the Turks, who took Constantinople. We shall now inquire into the causes and consequences of this revo¬ lution.

CHAPTER LXXIV.

FALL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.

The Crusades, in depopulating the West, opened the breach by which the Turks at length entered into Constantinople ; for the chiefs of these expedi¬ tions, by usurping the empire of the East, weakened it, and when the Greeks afterward recovered it from them, it was in a mangled and impoverished condi¬ tion.

We must not forget that the Greeks recovered their empire in the year 1261 ; and that Michael Pakeologus took it from the Latin usurpers, to deprive his pupil, John Lascaris, of the crown. We are also to recollect that in those days Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, invaded Naples and Sicily ; and that, had it not been for the affair of the Sicilian Vespers, he would have disputed with the tyrant Palaeologus the possession of Constantinople, destined to be a prey to usurpers.

This Michael Palseologus kept fair with the popes,

88 Ancient and Modern History.

hoping to avert the storm which threatened him. He flattered them with the submission of the Greek Church; but his low politics were not sufficient to counterbalance the spirit of party and superstition which prevailed in his country ; and he made him¬ self so odious by his manner of proceeding, that his own son Andronicus, an unhappily bigoted schis- tnatic, either dared not, or would not, grant him the rites of Christian burial in 1283.

The unhappy Greeks, though pressed on all sides by the Turks and Latins, were taken up with dis¬ puting about the transfiguration of Jesus Christ; one half of the empire pretending that the light upon Mount Tabor had been from all eternity, and the other half that it had been produced by God, only for the purpose of the transfiguration. In the mean¬ time the Turks were strengthening themselves in Asia Minor, whence they soon overran Thrace.

Ottoman, from whom all the Osmanli emperors descended, had fixed the feast of his empire at Byrsa, in Bithynia. Orcan, his son, advanced as far as the borders of the Propontis, and Emperor John Canta- cusenes was glad to give him his daughter in mar¬ riage. The nuptials were celebrated at Scutari, opposite Constantinople; soon after which Canta- cusenes, finding himself unable to keep the empire which another disputed with him, retired into a mon¬ astery. An emperor, father-in-law to a Turkish sultan, and himself a monk, gave a strong presage of the fall of the empire.

Fall of the Greek Empire. 89

The Turks wanted to pass into Europe, but were prevented for want of shipping. But so despicable was the condition of the empire at that time that the Genoese, for paying a small fine, were suffered to have possession of Galata, which is looked upon as one of the suburbs of Constantinople, and is sepa¬ rated from it only by a canal which forms the port. It is said that Sultan Amurath, son of this Orcan, engaged the Genoese to transport his soldiers to the other side of the straits. The bargain was con¬ cluded ; and thus, it is said, did the Genoese for a few thousand gold besants, betray the empire into the hands of the Infidels ; others say, that Amurath only made use of Genoese ships ; however, he passed the straits with his army, and advanced to Adrian- opolis, where he fixed his quarters, in 1357, and threatened all Christendom with an invasion. The emperor, John Palseologus, hastened to Rome, where he kissed the feet of Pope Urban V., acknowledged his primacy, and humbled himself in the most abject manner, for the sake of obtaining, through his medi¬ ation, the relief which the situation of Europe, and the fatal examples of the Crusades, would no longer admit of granting: therefore, after having in vain stooped to the pope, he returned to crouch beneath Amurath. He made a treaty with the sultan, not as a king with a king, but as a slave with his master, and at once served as a lieutenant and hostage to the Turkish conqueror. And, in 1374, after Amu¬ rath and this Palaeologus had each of them put out

90 Ancient and Modern History.

the eyes of his eldest son, of whom they were alike jealous, Palseologus gave his second son to the sul¬ tan; and this son, whose name was Manuel, served in the army of Amurath against the Christians.

Sultan Amurath was the first who gave to the janissary militia, which had been instituted before, that form under which it at present subsists. Being assassinated as he was pursuing his victories, he was succeeded by his son, Bajazet Ilderim, of Bajazet the Thunderbolt. The infamy and humiliation of the Greek emperors were now complete. Andronicus, the unhappy son of John Palseologus, whom his father had deprived of his sight, fled to Bajazet, in 1389, and implored his protection against his father, and his brother Manuel. Bajazet gave him four thou¬ sand horse ; and the Genoese, who were still masters of Galata, furnished him with men and money. Andronicus, thus assisted by the Turks and Genoese, made himself master of Constantinople, and shut his father up in prison.

At the end of two years the father resumed the throne, and built a citadel near Galata, in order to stop the progress of Bajazet, who already began to project the siege of Constantinople. Bajazet commanded him to demolish the citadel, and admit a Turkish cadi into the city, as judge of the Turk¬ ish merchants who were settled there. This order the emperor complied with. In the meantime Bajazet, leaving Constantinople behind him, as a sure prey upon which he could fall at pleasure,

91

Fall of the Greek Empire.

advanced into the midst of Hungary; there he gained a complete victory over the Christian army, and those brave French commanded by Sigismund, emperor of the West. The French, before the bat¬ tle, put all their Turkish prisoners to the sword; we are not therefore to wonder that Bajazet, after his victory, ordered all the French prisoners he had taken to be put to death, they themselves having set him this cruel example. He reserved only twenty- five knights from the general slaughter, among whom was Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, whom Bajazet thus addressed while he was receiv¬ ing his ransom : “ I might oblige thee to swear never more to bear arms against me, but I equally despise thy oaths and thy arms.”

After this defeat, Manuel, who had become emperor of the city of Constantinople, went to the several courts of Europe to petition for assistance, as his father had formerly done. He came to France; but he could not have applied at a less favorable juncture for assistance from that court: it was during the frenzy of Charles VI., when the kingdom was involved in numberless disorders. Manuel remained two years at Paris, while the capital of the Christians in the East was blocked up by the Turks, who at length laid siege to it in form, and its ruin seemed inevitable; but it was put off for some time by one of those great events which fill the world with confusion.

The dominion of the Mogul • Tartars, of which

92 Ancient and Modern History.

we have already seen the origin, extended from the Volga to the frontiers of China, and as far as the river Ganges. Tamerlane, one of the princes of these Tartars, reprieved Constantinople for a time by turning his arms against Bajazet.

CHAPTER LXXV.

TAMERLANE.

Timour, whom I shall call Tamerlane, in conformity with the general custom, was, according to the best historians, descended from Genghis Khan by the female side. He was born in the year 1357, in the city of Cash, in the territories of the ancient Sogdiana, whither the Greeks formerly penetrated under Alexander the Great, and settled some colo¬ nies. It is at present inhabited by the Usbeg Tartars. It begins at the borders of the Gihon, or Oxus; which river has its source in Lesser Thibet, about seven hundred leagues from the source of the Tigris and Euphrates. This is the river Gihon, which we find mentioned in the Book of Genesis.

At the mention of the city of Cash, we are ready to figure to ourselves a desert country. It lies, however, in the same latitude with Naples and Provence, and, in a word, is a delightful country.

At the name of Tamerlane, we are again apt to form an idea of a barbarian, little removed from a brute : but let it be remembered, as we have before observed, that there never was a great con-

Tamerlane.

93

queror among princes, nor in private life any per¬ son remarkably fortunate, without that kind of merit which always meets with success for its reward. Now, Tamerlane must undoubtedly have had the greater share of the merit peculiar to ambition, who, born without any dominions of his own, subdued more countries than Alexander, and almost as many as Genghis Khan. His first conquest was the city of Balk, the capital of Khorasan, on the borders of Persia. After that he subdued the province of Kandahar, and reduced all ancient Persia; then returning, he conquered the people of Transoxana, and made himself master of Bagdad. He went to India, which he also subdued, and took possession of Delhi, which is its capital. We find that all those who have made themselves masters of Persia have in like manner conquered or ravaged India. Thus Darius Ochus reduced it after many others; and after him Alexander, Genghis Khan, and Tam¬ erlane found it an easy conquest. Shah Nadir in our time only showed himself there, gave it laws, and brought off immense treasures.

Tamerlane, after having conquered India, returned and fell upon Syria, whose capital city, Damascus, he took. He then hastened back to Bagdad, which he had lately conquered, and which now attempted to throw off his yoke: he reduced it, and gave it up to plunder and the sword. It is said that on this occasion more than eight hundred thousand inhab¬ itants were put to death. The city was razed to

94 Ancient and Modern History.

the foundations. In these countries cities were easily destroyed, and as easily rebuilt, the houses being, as we have elsewhere remarked, built only of bricks dried in the sun. It was in the midst of this series of victories that the Greek emperor, after having in vain solicited aid from the Christians, addressed himself at length to the Tartar. Five Mahometan princes, whom Bajazet had driven out of their kingdoms on the borders of the Pontus Euxinus, came at the same time to implore his assistance. Thus invited by Mussulmans and Chris¬ tians, he marched into Asia Minor.

There is one circumstance which may give us an advantageous idea of Tamerlane's character, which is, that we find him, through the whole course of this war, strictly observant of the laws of nations. Before he began hostilities, he sent ambassadors to Bajazet, requiring him to raise the siege of Con¬ stantinople, and do justice to the Mussulman princes, whom he had deprived of their kingdoms. Baja¬ zet received these proposals with the utmost rage and contempt ; upon which Tamerlane declared war against him, and continued his march. Bajazet immediately raised the siege of Constantinople ; and between Caesarea and Ancira, in 1401, was fought that great battle, in which all the forces of the world seemed met together. Tamerlane’s troops must doubtless have been extremely well disci¬ plined ; for, after a most obstinate resistance, they conquered those which had defeated the Greeks, the

Tamerlane.

95

Hungarians, the Germans, the French, and many other warlike nations. We may be almost certain that, on this occasion, Tamerlane, who till then had always fought with the bow and scimitar, made use of cannon against the Ottomans ; and that it was he who sent those pieces of ordnance into the Mogul country which are to be seen there to this day, and on which are engraved certain unin¬ telligible characters. The Turks, on their side, not only made use of cannon, but also of the ancient wild-fire. This double advantage would have infal¬ libly given them the victory over Tamerlane, had he not made use of artillery.

Bajazet, in this battle, saw his son Mustapha slain, fighting by his side ; and he himself fell captive into the hands of the conqueror, with another of his sons, named Musa, or Moses.

It may not be displeasing to know the conse¬ quences of this memorable battle, between two nations which seemed to dispute for the mastery of Europe and Asia, and two mighty conquerors, whose names are still celebrated by posterity; a battle likewise, which, for a time, preserved the Greek Empire from ruin, and might have con¬ tributed to the overthrow of the Turkish power.

The Turkish annals tell us that Tamerlane shut Bajazet up in an iron cage; but we meet with nothing like this in any of the Persian or Arabian authors who have written the life of Tamerlane. Is this then a story intended to render the memory

96 Ancient and Modern History.

of Tamerlane odious? or rather, may we not sup¬ pose that the Turkish writers have copied from the Greek historians ? The Arabian authors pretend that Tamerlane made Bajazet’s queen wait on him at table half-naked ; and this has given rise to the received fable, that the Turkish sultans have never married since this insult offered to the wife of their predecessor ; a fable which is sufficiently con¬ tradicted by the marriage of Amurath II., whom we shall hereafter see espoused to the daughter of a despot of Servia, and by that of Mahomet II. with the daughter of a prince of Turcomania.

It is difficult to reconcile this story of the iron cage and the brutal insult offered to Bajazet’s wife with that generosity which the Turks ascribe to Tamerlane, who tell us, that when this conqueror had entered into Bursa, or Prusa, the capital of the Turkish dominions in Asia, he wrote a letter to Bajazet s son, Solyman, which would have done honor even to Alexander himself. In this letter Tamerlane thus expresses himself : “ I am desirous to forget that I have been the enemy of Bajazet, and will be a father to his children, provided they will wait the effects of my clemency. I am con¬ tented with the conquests I have already gained, and am not to be tempted by the hope of new favors from the hand of fickle fortune.”

Supposing such a letter to have been really writ¬ ten, it was certainly no more than an artifice. The Turks say further, that Solyman, not hearkening to

Tamerlane.

97

this generous proposal of Tamerlane, that prince declared Musa, the other son of Bajazet, sultan in Bursa, and that on this occasion he said to him, “Receive the inheritance of thy father; a royal mind knows how to give as well as to conquer kingdoms.”

The Oriental historians, as well as ours, frequently put words in the mouths of illustrious personages which were never spoken by them. This wondrous magnanimity toward the son does but ill agree with the barbarous treatment he is accused of toward the father. All that we can collect for certain, or that merits our attention, is, that this great victory of Tamerlane did not deprive the Turks of a single city: this Musa, whom he made sultan, and whom he protected in opposition to his two brothers, Solyman and Mahomet I., could not, even with his assistance, make head against them : and in the thirteen years’ civil war which ensued between the children of Bajazet, Tamerlane does not seem to have gained any great advantage, which, together with the lack of success of this new sultan, clearly shows that the Turks were a truly warlike people, who, though they might be conquered, were not to be enslaved ; and that the Tartar, finding that he could not easily extend his conquests, nor form a settlement in Asia Minor, turned his arms elsewhere.

His pretended magnanimity toward Bajazet’s sons

was certainly not the effect of his moderation ; for

we find him soon afterward ravaging all Syria, Vol. 26 — 7

98 Ancient and Modern History.

which belonged to the Egyptian Mamelukes. He then repassed the Euphrates, and returned to the city of Samarcand, which he considered as the capital of his vast empire. He had conquered almost as great an extent of territory as Genghis Khan, for although this latter made himself master of a part of China and Korea, Tamerlane was for some time in possession of Syria and a part of Asia Minor, whither Genghis had never been able to penetrate. He was also master of almost all Hindostan ; whereas Genghis had subdued only the northern provinces of that vast empire. While he remained at Samarcand, he meditated the conquest of China, although far from being firmly established in the immense dominions he already possessed, and at an age when his death could not be far distant.

It was in this city that he, like Genghis Khan, received the homage of several princes of Asia, and ambassadors from many sovereigns, particularly from the Greek emperor, Manuel, and even from Henry III., king of Castile. On this occasion he gave one of those feasts which resembled the mag;- nificent entertainments given of old by the first kings of Persia. All the different orders of the state, and the several artificers, passed in review before him, each carrying the badge of their pro¬ fession. He married all his grandsons and grand¬ daughters in the same day : at length he died in an extreme old age, in 1406, after a reign of thirty-six years, happier with respect to his length of days,

Tamerlane.

99

and having lived to see his grandchildren happy, than Alexander, to whom the Orientals are so fond of comparing him ; but otherwise far inferior to the Macedonian, being born in a barbarous nation, and having, like Genghis Khan, destroyed a multitude of cities without having built one ; whereas Alex¬ ander, during the course of a very short life, and in the midst of his rapid conquests, built Alexandria and Scanderoon, and rebuilt this very city of Samar- cand, which afterward became the seat of Tamer¬ lane’s empire, as likewise a number of other cities in India: he also established several colonies of Greeks beyond the Oxus, sent the astronomical observations of the Babylonians into Greece, and entirely changed the commerce of Asia, Europe, and Africa, making Alexandria the magazine of the universe ; so far then, in my opinion, Alexander sur¬ passes Tamerlane, Genghis, and all the conquerors who have been put up in competition with him.

I do not think that Tamerlane was of a more impetuous disposition than Alexander. If I may be permitted to enliven a little the history of these dreadful events, and to mix the little with the great, 1 shall relate a story which is told by a Persian writer contemporary with this prince. He says that a famous Persian poet, named Hamedi Kermani, being in the same bath with him and several of his courtiers, and diverting themselves at a game which consisted in setting a certain value upon every one in the company, “ I should value you at thirty

ioo Ancient and Modern History.

aspers,” said he to the great Khan. “ Why, the nap¬ kin that I wipe myself with,” replied the prince, “ is worth that.” “ Yes,” returned Hamedi, “ I reckon the napkin likewise.” Perhaps a prince who would suffer these innocent freedoms could not be thought to have a very cruel disposition; but great con¬ querors frequently divert themselves with the inferior part of mankind, and destroy others.

Tamerlane was neither a Mussulman, nor yet of the sect of Lama, but like the learned in China, acknowledged only one God, in which he gave a proof of that good understanding in which more civilized nations have been wanting. We meet with no marks of superstition either in himself or his followers. He alike tolerated the Mussulmans, the Lamians, and the other idolatrous sects which are spread over India. It is even said that, as he passed by Mount Libanus, he assisted at the religious cere¬ monies of the Maronite monks, who inhabited those mountains. His greatest foible was an attachment to judicial astrology, an error common to all men in those times, and from which we ourselves are but lately freed. He was not learned himself, but he took care to have his grandsons trained up in the knowledge of the sciences. The famous Oulougbeg, who succeed him in his dominions beyond the Oxus, founded in the city of Samarcand the first academy of sciences : he caused the measure of the earth to be taken, and helped to compose the astronomical tables which bore his name, as King Alphonso of

Tamerlane.

IOI

Castile had done near a century before. At present the grandeur of Samarcand is fallen with the sciences ; and this country, now occupied by the Usbeg Tartars, is sunk again into barbarism, to become, perhaps, more flourishing in future times.

The posterity of Tamerlane still continue to reign in Hindostan, which is now called Mogul, a name it has retained from the Mogul Tartars, the fol¬ lowers of Genghis Khan, who preserved their con¬ quests in that country till the time of Tamerlane. Another branch of his race reigned in Persia, till they were driven out by another dynasty of Tar¬ tarian princes of the faction of the White Sheep, in 1468.

And now, if we reflect that the Turks were also of Tartarian origin, and call to remembrance that Attila was descended from the same people, this will confirm what has been already observed, that the Tartars have made the conquest of almost the whole globe. The reason we have already seen. They had nothing to lose, and were the most robust and hardy of all other nations. But since the Oriental Tartars, after having made a second conquest of China in the last century, have formed only one empire of China and eastern Tartary; since the Russian empire has become more extensive and more civilized ; and, since the earth has been covered with ramparts and lined with artillery, we are no longer in dread of these prodigious emigrations. The civilized nations are secure from the irruptions of these Barbarians. All

102 Ancient and Modern History.

Tartary, excepting China, is now only the receptacle of a number of miserable tribes, who would esteem themselves happy to be conquered in their turn, were it not still more desirable to be free than to be civilized.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE TURKS AND

GREEKS TILL THE TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

Constantinople was once out of danger by the victory which Tamerlane gained over Bajazet; but the successors of this sultan soon recovered their empire. The chief of Tamerlane’s conquests were in Persia, Syria, India, Armenia, and part of Russia. The Turks quickly recovered Asia Minor, and kept all they had conquered in Europe. In those times there must certainly have been a more intimate cor¬ respondence, or at least not so great an aversion between the Mahometans and the Christians as there is at present. John Palaeologus made no difficulty to give his daughter in marriage to Sultan Orcan ; and Amurath II., grandson of Bajazet, and son of Mahomet I. very readily espoused Irene, daughter of a despot of Servia.

Amurath II. was one of those Turkish princes who contributed to raise the grandeur of the Otto¬ man family ; but he was far from being the dupe to that glare and pomp which awaited the success of his arms. His sole view was to secure a quiet

Turks and Greeks. 103

retreat. It was somewhat singular to see a Turkish monarch so much the philosopher as to lay down his crown ; yet this he did twice, and as often was in a manner obliged to resume it, at the repeated entreaties of his pashas and janissaries.

John Palaeologus made a journey to Rome to meet the council which Pope Eugenius IV. had assembled at Florence. There he held a disputation upon the procession of the Holy Ghost; while the Venetians, who were already masters of one part of Greece, were purchasing Thessalonica, and the Christians and the Mahometans were dividing his empire between them. In the meantime, Amurath made himself master of Thessalonica, almost as soon as the Venetians had purchased it. The Venetians imagined they had sufficiently secured this country, and indeed provided for the defence of all Greece, by a wall eight hundred paces in length, in imitation of that built by the ancient Romans in the north of England. This might have been a sufficient defence against the incursions of a savage and undisciplined people, but availed little against the victorious arms of the Turkish militia. In short, they destroyed this wall, and pushed their invasion on all sides, into Greece, Dalmatia, and Hungary.

The Hungarians had raised to their throne young Ladislaus IV., king of Poland. With this prince, Amurath II., after having prosecuted the war for some years in Hungary, Thrace, and all the adjacent countries, with varied success, in 1444, concluded the

104 Ancient and Modern History.

most solemn treaty of peace that had ever been made between the Christians and Mahometans. Amurath and Ladislaus took an oath to each other, the one on the Koran, and the other on the Gospels, by which the Turk on his side promised to push his conquests no farther, and even restored part of what he had taken. By this treaty the limits of the Ottoman possessions were settled as well as those of the Hungarians and Venetians.

But Cardinal Julian Cesarini, the pope’s legate in Germany, a man famous for his persecutions of the Hussites, for having been president of the Coun¬ cil of Basel at its first sitting, and for the crusade which he preached against the Turks, proved on this occasion, by his blind zeal, the cause of the greatest disgrace and misfortunes to the Christians.

The treaty of peace was scarcely ratified when this cardinal endeavored to break it. He flattered himself with being able to engage the Venetians and Genoese to assemble a formidable fleet ; and that the Greeks, roused from their long lethargy, would make one last effort for the preservation of their liberties. The opportunity was certainly favor¬ able , as it was at this very time that Amurath, relying on the faith of this treaty, had devoted himself to retirement, and had resigned the govern¬ ment to his son Mahomet, a young and inexperi¬ enced prince.

Some pretext, however, was wanting for the vio¬ lation of this treaty on the side of the Christians.

Turks and Greeks. 105

Amurath had observed all the conditions of the peace with an exactness which left those who infringed it without an excuse. The legate there¬ fore had no other resource left but to persuade Ladislaus, the Hungarians, and Polish chiefs that it was lawful to violate their oath. For this purpose he harangued and wrote, and assured them that the peace which they had sworn upon the Gospels was of no effect, as having been done contrary to the inclination of the pope. In fact, Eugenius IV., the then pope, wrote to Ladislaus, commanding him in express terms, “To break a peace which could not lawfully be made without the knowledge of the holy see.” We have already seen that they had introduced the maxim that no faith was to be kept with heretics. It was, therefore, concluded that no faith was to be kept with Mahometans.

In just the same manner did ancient Rome break her truce with Carthage in the last Punic war. But there was a considerable difference between the two events. The infidelity of the Roman senate was the oppressive act of a conqueror; that of the Christians the effort of an oppressed people to throw off the yoke of usurpers. In fine, Julian prevailed; and all the chiefs suffered themselves to be carried away by the torrent, especially John Corvinus Huniades, the famous Hungarian gen¬ eral, who so frequently engaged Amurath and Mahomet II.

Ladislaus, seduced by false hopes, and a manner

io 6 Ancient and Modern History.

of thinking which success alone can justify, invaded the sultan's territories. The janissaries upon this went in a body to beseech Amurath to quit his retirement, and put himself at their head, to which he consented ; and the two armies met near the Pontus Euxinus, in that country now known by the name of Bulgaria, but which was then called Moesia. The battle was fought near the city of Varna, in 1444. Amurath wore in his bosom the treaty of peace which he had concluded with the Christians, and which they had so lately infringed ; and holding it up in the midst of the crowd, at a time that he found his troops began to give way, he called aloud to God, beseeching Him to punish the perjured Christians, and revenge the insult offered to the laws of nations. This is what has given rise to the fabulous report, that the peace was sworn on the eucharist, and the host deposited in the hands of Amurath, and that it was to this host that he addressed himself in the day of battle. Perjury for this time met with the punishment it deserved. The Christians were defeated after an obstinate resistance. King Ladislaus, after receiving a number of wounds, had his head struck off by a janissary, who carried it in triumph through the ranks of the Turkish army; at this fatal sight the rout of the Christians became general.

Amurath, after his victory, caused the body of Ladislaus to be buried in the field of battle, with ad military honors. It is even said that he caused

Scanderbeg. 107

a pillar to be erected on his grave ; with an inscrip¬ tion, which was so far from insulting his memory, that it extolled his courage, and lamented his mis¬ fortunes.

Some writers say that Cardinal Julian, who was present at this battle, endeavoring to cross a river in his flight, was drowned by the weight of gold which he carried about him. Others again say that he was slain by the Hungarians. It is certain that he perished on that day.

But what is most remarkable is, that Amurath, after having gained this signal victory, betook him¬ self again to solitude ; and a second time abdicated the crown, which he was afterward obliged to resume, to go forth again to battle, and to con¬ quer.

At length he died in Adrianopolis, in 1451, leaving the empire to his son, Mahomet II., who strove rather to imitate his father’s courage than his philos¬ ophy.

CHAPTER LXXVII.

SCANDERBEG.

Another warrior of no less fame, whom I know not whether to call an Osmanist or Christian, checks the progress of Amurath’s arms, and for a long time becomes a rampart for the Christians against the victories of Mahomet II. The person I mean

io8 Ancient and Modern History.

is Scanderbeg, who was born in Albania, a province of Epirus, a country illustrious in the times we call heroic, and in those truly heroic ages of the Romans. His true name was John Castriot. He was the son of a despot or petty king of that country, that is to say, a vassal prince ; for this is the mean¬ ing of the word “ despot ; ” and it is surprising that the term “ despotic ” should have been applied to great sovereigns who had rendered themselves abso¬ lute.

After the death of old Castriot, and several years before the battle of Varna already mentioned, Sul¬ tan Amurath made himself master of Albania, while this John Castriot, who was the only survivor of four brothers, was yet a child. Amurath had him carefully brought up. The Turkish annals do not make the least mention of the three other princes having been put to death by Amurath ; nor does it at all appear that such barbarity could agree with the character of a sultan who had twice resigned his crown; and it is as little probable that Amurath should have shown such tenderness and confidence for a person from whom he could expect no return but an implacable hatred. He loaded him with favors, and would always have him fight by his side. The young Castriot distinguished himself so greatly in several engagements, that the sultan and the janissaries gave him the name of Scanderbeg, which signifies Lord Alexander.

At length, friendship getting the better of policy.

Scanderbeg. 109

Amurath entrusted him with the command of a small army against the despot of Servia, who had sided with the Christians and declared war against the sultan, his son-in-law. Scanderbeg, who was at that time barely twenty years of age, conceived the bold design of throwing off subjection, and reigning for himself.

He knew that the secretary, who had the custody of the sultan’s signet, was to pass near his camp. He caused him to be seized, loaded with chains, and compelled him to write, and put the sultan’s seal to an order, enjoining the governor of Croia, the capital of Epirus, to deliver the town and citadel to Scander¬ beg.

After having despatched this order, he assassinated the secretary and all those of his train. He then, in 1443, marched with all diligence to Croia, which the governor, without hesitation, delivered up to him. The same night he caused a body of Albanians, with whom he had held a private correspondence, to advance, who, entering the city, put the governor and his garrison to the sword, and afterward assisted Scanderberg in reducing all Albania. The Alban¬ ians are reckoned the best soldiers of those countries , and Scanderbeg knew so well how to manage them, and to take advantage of the situation of that craggy and mountainous country, that, with a handful of troops, he effectually opposed the numerous armies of the Turks.

The Mussulmans look upon him as a perfidious

no Ancient and Modern History.

wretch : but, after all, he only deceived his enemies. He recovered the possession of his father’s crown, and deserved to wear it for his heroic courage.

CHAPTER LXXVIII.

THE TAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS.

Had the Greek emperors acted like Scanderbeg, the empire of the East might still have been preserved. But the same spirit of cruelty, weakness, discord, and superstition which had shaken it for such a length of time, now hastened its final overthrow.

There were no less than three empires of the East, so called, when in reality there was but one. The city of Constantinople, which was in the hands of the Greeks ; Adrianople, the asylum of the Lascaris family, till taken by Amurath I., in 1362, and which has ever since belonged to the sultans ; and a barbar¬ ous province of the ancient Colchis, called Trebi- zond, which served for a retreat to the Comneni, was the third reputed empire.

This dismembering of the empire was, as we have already observed, the only considerable effect pro¬ duced by the Crusades. Ravaged as it had been by the Franks, and retaken again by its former masters, only to undergo new desolation, it is surprising that it subsisted so long. There were two parties in Constantinople, bitter enemies to each other on the score of religion, as was nearly the case in Jerusa¬ lem, when that city was besieged by Vespasian and

The Taking of Constantinople. hi

Titus. One of these factions was for the emperor, who, through the vain hope of aid from the Latins, had consented to subject the Greek Church to that of Rome. The other was composed of the priests and the people, who, having fresh in their memories the invasion of the Crusaders, utterly abhorred the thoughts of a union of the two churches. While these two factions were taken up with their mutual bickerings and controversial disputes, the Turks appeared at their gates.

John VII., surnamed Palseologus, reigned in Con¬ stantinople twenty-seven years ; and at his death, which happened in 1449* he left the empife 1° so weak a condition that one of his sons, called Con¬ stantine, was obliged to receive the confirmation of the imperial dignity from the Turkish sultan, Amu- rath II., as from his lord paramount. A brother of this Constantine had Lacedaemonia, another Corinth, and a third all that part of Peloponnesus which did not belong to the Venetians.

Such was the situation of the Greeks, when Maho¬ met Bouyouck, or the Great, succeeded Sultan Amurath, his father, for the second time. The monkish writers have described this prince as a senseless barbarian, who at one time cut off the head of his supposed mistress, Irene, to appease a sedition of the janissaries; and at another, ordered fourteen of his pages to have their bellies ripped open, in order to discover which of them had eaten a melon that was missing. We stdl find some of

1 12 Ancient and Modern History.

these absurd stories in our biographical dictionaries, which have for a long time been little better than alphabetical registers of falsehoods.

All the Turkish annals inform us that Mahomet was one of the best educated princes of his time. What we have already observed concerning his father, Amurath, sufficiently proves that he was not likely to neglect the education of a son who was to succeed him in the kingdom. Nor has it ever been denied that Mahomet behaved with all filial respect and duty, and without hearkening to the dictates of ambition, in cheerfully yielding the throne to his father when he wished to resume it. He twice returned to the degree of subject from that. of king, without showing the least signs of discontent. This is an action unparalleled in history ; and so much the more extraordinary, as Mahomet to an ambitious spirit added a fiery and impetuous disposition.

He spoke the Greek, Arabian, and Persian lan- guages, understood Latin and designing, and knew as much of geography and mathematics as could be known in those times. He was fond of painting; and every lover of the liberal arts knows that he sent for the famous Gentili Bellino from Venice, and rewarded him, as Alexander did Apelles, not only with a pecuniary gratification, but with the indul¬ gence of his private friendship ; he presented him with a golden crown and chain, and three thousand gold ducats , and sent him home loaded with honors. And here I cannot help classing among the rank

The Taking of Constantinople. 113

of improbable tales, that of the slave whose head Mahomet is said to have cut off, to show Bellino the action of the skin and muscles in a neck separated from the trunk. These cruelties, though exercised by us upon animals, to answer certain purposes, are never practised by mankind on one another, unless in the heat of fury and revenge, or agreeable to the law of arms. Mahomet II. was frequently guilty of cruel and savage actions, like all other conquerors who have ravaged the earth ; but why impute cruelties of so improbable a nature to him ; or wherefore take delight in multiplying horrid relations ?

He was twenty-two years of age when he ascended the throne of the sultans, and immediately formed the design of placing himself on that of Constanti¬ nople, while this wretched city was running into religious factions about using leavened or unleav¬ ened bread, or praying in Latin or in Greek.

In 1453, he began by blocking up the city on the side of Europe and Asia. At length, in the begin¬ ning of April, he covered the whole adjacent country with his troops, which the exaggerated relations of the writers of those times have made to amount to three hundred thousand, and entered the straits of Propontis with three hundred galleys and two hun¬ dred other smaller vessels.

One of the most extraordinary and best attested facts, is the use which Mahomet made of a part of

these vessels. As he could not enter the harbor Vol. 26—8

1 14 Ancient and Modern History.

of Constantinople, by reason of the great chains and booms which the enemy had laid across it and which from their advantageous situation, they were able to defend against all attempts, he, in one night’s time, covered a space of nearly two leagues, on the shore, with deal planks besmeared with grease and tallow, and made in the form of a ship’s cradle, and, with the help of engines and a prodigious number of men, he drew up eighty gal¬ leys and seventy of the smaller vessels, out of the water upon these planks, whence he launched them all into the harbor. And this amazing work was completed in the space of one night, so that the next morning the besieged were surprised with the sight of a large fleet of ships riding in the midst of their port. The same day he caused a bridge of boats to be built across the harbor in their sight, on which he raised a battery of cannon.

Assuredly Constantinople must have been very deficient in artillery, or the artillery must have been very badly served. Else what prevented the besieged from beating this bridge of boats to pieces with their cannon? Rather doubtful is also what is said of Mahomet’s making use of cannon that carried balls of two hundred pounds weight. The conquered always exaggerate matters. It is plain that one of these balls would require near a hundred¬ weight of powder to throw it to any distance. Now such a quantity of powder could never be fired all at once, and the ball would be discharged from the

The Taking of Constantinople. 115

cannon before the fifteenth part of the powder could take fire, consequently it would have very little etfiect. Perhaps the Turks might, through ignor¬ ance, have made use of such cannon, and through a like ignorance, the Greeks might be terrified at the appearance of them.

In the beginning of May, the Turks began to make several assaults on that city, which thought itself the capital of the world. Constantinople was then very weakly fortified, and not better defended. The emperor, in conjunction with a cardinal of Rome, named Isidore, performed his devotions ac¬ cording to the Romish ritual, which at once exasper¬ ated and discouraged his Greek subjects, who would not so much as enter the churches which he fre¬ quented, declaring, “ They had rather see a Turkish turban in their churches, than a cardinal’s hat.”

In former times almost all the princes of Chris¬ tendom, under pretence of a holy war, had joined together to invade this metropolis and bulwark of the Christian world, and now that it was attacked by the enemies to the faith, not one stirred in its defence.

Emperor Frederick III. was neither sufficiently enterprising nor powerful to attempt anything for its relief. Poland was under too bad an administra¬ tion. France was but just recovered from the miser¬ able state to which she had been reduced by her wars at home, and those she had been engaged in against the English. England began to be divided and

ii 6 Ancient and Modern History.

weak. The duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, was indeed a powerful prince, but he had too much understanding to revive the Crusades alone, and was too old to bear a share in such enterprises. The Italian princes were engaged in war with each other. The kingdoms of Aragon and Castile were not yet united, and a great part of Spain was still in the possession of the Moors.

In short, there were but two sovereigns in Europe capable of encouraging Mahomet II. These were John Huniades, prince of Transylvania, who could hardly defend his own territories ; and the famous Scanderbeg, who had enough to do to keep posses¬ sion of the mountains of Epirus, like Pelagius Tudo- mer, heretofore in those of Asturias, when the Moors overran Spain. Four Genoese ships, of which one belonged to Emperor Frederick III., were almost all the assistance the Christian world could at that time afford Constantinople. This unfortunate city was commanded by a foreigner, whose name was Justiniani, a native of Genoa. An edifice reduced to such props must infallibly fall to ruin. The ancient Greeks never had a Persian for a chief, nor was the Roman republic ever headed by a Gaul. Constantinople, therefore, must necessarily be taken, and it was so ; but in a man¬ ner entirely different from that we find related in all our authors, who have copied after Ducas and Calcondilus.

The Turkish annals, collected and digested by

The Taking of Constantinople. 117

the late Prince Demetrius Cantemir at Constan¬ tinople, inform us, that, after having sustained a siege of seven weeks, Emperor Constantine was at length obliged to capitulate; and that he sent Greek deputies to receive the laws the conqueror should please to impose on them. Several articles were agreed upon at this meeting : but, as the Greek envoys were returning to the city, Mahomet, who had something further to say to them, despatched a body of men to bring them back to his camp. The besieged, who from the walls beheld a large troop of armed Turks in full pursuit — as they thought — of their deputies, imprudently fired on them. This party was instantly joined by a much greater num¬ ber. The envoys got into the city by one of the posterns, and the Turks entered pell-mell with them, and soon made themselves masters of the upper town, which is separated from the lower. The emperor Constantine was killed in the crowd; and Mahomet thereupon turned the imperial palace into a palace for himself, and made the cathedral church of St. Sophia a Turkish mosque.

Being thus master, by right of conquest, of one half of Constantinople, he had the humanity or policy to offer the same terms of capitulation to that part which still held out as he had proposed to grant to the whole city; and religiously observed his agreement. This fact is so true, that all the Christian churches of the lower town remained till the reign of his grandson Selim, who ordered

1 1 8 Ancient and Modern History.

several of them to be demolished. The Turks called them the mosques of Issevi, Issevi being- the Turk¬ ish name for Jesus. The church of the Greek patri¬ arch still remains in Constantinople, on the canal of the Black Sea ; and the Ottoman emperors have permitted an academy to be founded in that quarter of the city where the modern Greeks teach the ancient language, now almost entirely disused, the Aristotelian philosophy, divinity, and physic: and in this school were educated Constantine Ducas, Maurocordatos, and Demetrius Cantemir, after¬ ward made princes of Transylvania by the Turks. I must acknowledge that Demetrius Cantemir abounds with a great number of old fabulous stories ; but he could not be deceived in relation to the modern monuments, which were before his eyes, nor the academy in which he himself was brought up.

The Christians are still indulged with a church and one street in the city to themselves, in con¬ sideration of a Greek architect named Christobulus, whom Mahomet II. employed to build a new mosque on the ruins of the Holy Apostles, an ancient edifice built by the empress Theodora, wife of the emperor Justinian. This architect succeeded so well that his building proved little inferior in beauty to the famous mosque of St. Sophia. He was also employed by the sultan’s orders in building eight public schools, and the same number of hospitals, all belonging to this mosque ; and, as a reward for

The Taking of Constantinople. 119

his services, the sultan granted him the street just mentioned, which still remains in the possession of his family. It may not perhaps appear a fact worthy a place in history, that an architect was rewarded with the grant of a street ; but it is of some impor¬ tance to know that the Turks do not always behave in that cruel and brutal manner to Christians which we are apt to imagine they do. Whole nations have been misled by the errors of historians : a number of Oriental writers have asserted that the Turks adored Venus, and denied the providence of a God. Grotius himself tells us after others, that Mahomet, the great false prophet of the Turks, had trained up a pigeon to fly to his ear, and made the people believe that it was the spirit of God who came to instruct him under that form; and we find as many ridiculous stories related concerning the great con¬ queror, Mahomet II.

One evident proof that Mahomet was a prince of more knowledge and policy than he is usually sup¬ posed to have been, and notwithstanding all that Cardinal Isidore and others may say to the contrary, is, that he allowed the conquered Christians the lib¬ erty of choosing their own patriarch ; he even per¬ formed the ceremony of installation himself, with the usual solemnities, and invested him with the crosier and ring, which the emperors of the West had not dared to do for a long time, and departed in no one point from the accustomed ceremony, unless it was in conducting the patriarch-elect, Gennadius,

120 Ancient and Modern History.

to the gate of his palace, who told the sultan on this occasion that he was confounded at receiving an honor which no one of the Christian emperors had ever bestowed upon his predecessors. Since that time the Ottoman emperors have always made one patriarch, who is called the ecumenical patri¬ arch, and the pope another, who is called the Latin patriarch. Each of these patriarchs is taxed by the divan in a certain sum, which he pays as a ransom for his flock. The two churches, though groaning alike under the yoke of bondage, were still at irrec¬ oncilable enmity with each other; and the sultans were frequently obliged to interpose their authority, in order to put an end to their disputes ; thus becom¬ ing the moderators, as well as conquerors of the Christians.

But the Turkish victors have not acted with regard to the Greeks as they did in the tenth and eleventh centuries by the Arabians, whose language, religion, and customs they adopted, after having conquered them. When the Turks subdued the Arabians, they were in most things utterly barbar¬ ous ; but when they made the conquest of the Greek Empire, the constitution of their government had been long formed. Besides, they had a veneration for the Arabians ; but they despised the Greeks, and never had any other intercourse with them than that of masters with their slaves, and still preserved the same customs and laws as at the time of their conquest. The body of Yenghi-Cheris, or janissa-

121

The Taking of Constantinople.

ries, was kept up in full vigor, to the number of forty-five thousand. The soldiers of no nation what¬ ever had such ample allowance as these janissaries : each oda, or captain, has always a purveyor, who supplies his troops with mutton, rice, butter, pulse, and bread in great plenty.

The Turkish sultans have continued in Europe the ancient customs they practiced in Asia, that of rewarding their soldiers with fiefs for life, and some of them hereditary. They did not derive this custom from the Arabian caliphs, whom they con¬ quered, the Arabian government being founded on different principles. But it was always the custom of the western Tartars to divide the lands of the conquered, and this institution they established in Europe as early as the fifth century, an institution which necessarily attaches the conquerors to a coun¬ try which is become their inheritance; and those nations who mixed with them, such as the Lom¬ bards, the Franks, and the Ottomans, followed the same plan. Tamerlane carried this custom with him into the Indies, where we still find several very powerful lords of fiefs, under the titles of Omras, Rajas, and Nabobs. But the Ottomans gave only small portions of lands to their soldiery, and their zaimets and timariots are rather farms than lord- ships. This is a truly warlike institution ; for if a zaim dies in the field, his children share his fief between them ; but if he dies at home, the beglerbeg, that is, the captain-general of the province, has a

122

Ancient and Modern History.

right of disposing of this military benefice. And these zaims and timars, like our ancient Franks, claim no privileges of title, jurisdiction, or nobility, but only according to the number of soldiers they furnish or bring into the field.

From the same military school they take all their cadihs and mollahs, who are the common judges, as likewise the two cadi-leskers of Europe and Asia, who are judges of the provinces and armies, and who, under the mufti, have the care of the religion and laws. The mufti and the cadi-leskers have always been alike subject to the divan. The der¬ vishes, a kind of mendicant monks among the Turks, though grown more numerous of late, still preserve their ancient form. The custom of building cara¬ vansaries for the convenience of travellers, and schools and hospitals near all the mosques, still sub¬ sists. In a word, the Turks are in all things the same people they were, not only when they took Constantinople, but at their first coming into Europe.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

PROGRESS OF THE TURKS.

During a reign of thirty-one years, Mahomet II- proceeded from conquest to conquest, without any of the princes of Europe joining in league against him ; for we cannot give the name of league to the short alliance entered into between John Huniades, prince of Transylvania, the king of Hungary, and a

123

Progress of the Turks.

despot of Black Russia. This famous warrior, Huniades, gave proofs that, had he been better sup¬ ported, the Christians would never have lost all those territories which the Turks are now possessed of in Europe. Three years after the taking of Con¬ stantinople, he obliged Mahomet II. to raise the siege of Belgrade.

At the same time also the Persians fell upon the Turks, and turned back that torrent which threat¬ ened to overflow all Christendom. Ussum Khan, surnamed the White Ram, a descendant of Tamer¬ lane, and governor of Armenia, had lately subdued Persia ; he now entered into alliance with the Chris¬ tians, and this first gave them the hint of uniting together against the common enemy: he married the daughter of David Comnenus, emperor of Treb- izond. It was held unlawful for Christians to marry their godmother or their cousin ; but we see that in Greece, Spain, and Asia they made no scruple of marrying with those of a contrary faith.

The Tartar, Ussum Khan, son-in-law of the Christian emperor, Comnenus, attacked Mahomet near the Euphrates. This favorable opportunity for the Christians was again neglected, and they suffered Mahomet, after various successes, to make peace with the Persian, and afterward to become master of Trebizond, with a part of Cappadocia annexed to it; to turn his arms upon Greece, and take Negropont; then to march back toward the Black Sea and seize upon Caffa, the ancient Theo-

124 Ancient and Modern History.

dosia, rebuilt by the Genoese; and afterward to reduce Scutari, Zante, Cephalonia, and even to push his conquests as far as Trieste in the port of Venice, till at length he fixed the seat of Mahometan power in the midst of Calabria, whence he threatened all Italy, and where his lieutenants remained till some time after his death. Rhodes escaped his arms, but this did not make him less formidable to the rest of the West.

He had conquered Epirus, after the death of Scan- derbeg. The Venetians had the courage to oppose his arms, for at this time their power was in its zenith; they had extensive territories on the main¬ land, their fleets braved those of Mahomet, and they even made themselves masters of Athens ; but at length this republic, for want of being properly assisted, was obliged to give way, restore Athens, and purchase by annual tribute the liberty of trading in the Black Sea, hoping to recover her losses by that commerce which had laid the first foundation of her grandeur; but not long after she sustained more injury from Pope Julius II. and almost every one of the Christian princes than she had done by all the power of the Ottoman arms.

In the meantime, Mahomet II. turned his victor¬ ious arms against the Mameluke sultans of Egypt, while his lieutenants were employed in Naples; at length he flattered himself with making the con¬ quest of Rome, as he had done that of Constanti¬ nople ; and being told one day of the ceremony with

Progress of the Turks. 125

which the doge of Venice once a year espouses the Adriatic Sea, he made answer that he would quickly send him to the bottom of that sea to con¬ summate his nuptials. However, a violent fit of colic delivered the world from him, in 1481, at the age of fifty-one years. But the Ottomans have, nevertheless, remained in possession of a far more beautiful country in Europe than even the whole of Italy, and the birthplace of Leonidas, Miltiades, Alexander, Sophocles, and Plato sank beneath a barbarous yoke. From that time the Greek language became corrupted, and there remained hardly any traces of the arts ; for, although there was a Greek academy at Constantinople, it was certainly very different from that of Athens ; and the six thousand monks which the Ottoman sultans permit to live on Mount Athos, have as yet been unable to revive the liberal arts in this empire. Formerly this very city of Constantinople was under the protection of Athens, and the province of Chalcedonia was trib¬ utary to it; and the king of Thrace sued for the honor of being admitted as one of its citizens. At present the descendants of the old Tartars are mas¬ ters of these beautiful regions, and the name of Greece has become in a manner extinct. Neverthe¬ less, we shall always hold the little city of Athens in higher veneration than the Turkish power, were it to spread over the whole earth.

The Greeks remained in a state of oppression, but not of slavery; they were left the exercise of their

126 Ancient and Modern History.

religion and laws, and the Turks behaved to them as the Arabians had done to the people of Spain. The Greek families still continue to live peaceably in their native country, though in obscurity and contempt; they paid but a slight tribute, and employed themselves in trade and agriculture ; their towns and villages still continued to have their Protogeros, who decided their differences, and their patriarch was supported in an honorable manner by them. He must have had a considerable revenue, since upon his installation he was obliged to pay four thousand ducats into the sultan’s treasury, and a like sum to the officers of the Porte.

The greatest mark of subjection the Greeks labored under was that of being obliged to furnish the sultans with a number of children to serve in their seraglios, or in their janissary militia. Every father of a family was obliged to give one of his sons, or purchase his freedom with a fine. There aie still certain Christian provinces in Europe where it is an established custom to set apart one of their children from the birth, to carry arms. The chil¬ dren given to the Turkish sultans were brought up in the seraglio, where they frequently made very great fortunes. Nor was their condition among the janissaries to be despised. It is a strong proof of the force of education, and of the extraordinary changes in this world, that most of these haughty enemies to the Christian name, were born of oppressed Christians ; and a still more lively proof

Progress of the Turks. 127

of that invincible fatality by which the Supreme Being links together all the events of the universe, is that the emperor Constantine should have built Constantinople for the Turks, as Romulus had so many ages before laid the foundation of the Capitol for the heads of the Christian Church.

And here I think myself obliged to refute one false notion, namely, that the Turkish government is of that absurd form called despotic ! that the people are all slaves to their sultans ; that they have no property of their own, but are in their lives and fortunes wholly at the mercy of their masters. Such an administration must necessarily destroy itself. It would be very extraordinary that the conquered Greeks should not be slaves, and that their con¬ querors should. Some travellers have supposed that a sultan was lord of all the lands in his empire, because he disposed of certain timariots (or estates for life), as the kings of France formerly bestowed military fiefs ; but these gentlemen should consider that there are laws of inheritance in Turkey as well as in all other countries.

It is true that all the movable effects belonging to a pasha at the time of his demise fall to the sultan, who usually gives a part of them to his family; but it was an established custom in Europe at the time when fiefs were not hereditary, and long after, for bishops to inherit the movables of the inferior clergy ; and the popes claimed the same right on the estates of cardinals, and all others possessed of

128 Ancient and Modern History.

church livings, who died within the residence of the chief pontiff.

The Turks are not only all of them free, but they have not even the distinction of nobility among them, and are strangers to any other superiority than that of employ in the state.

They are in their manners at once fierce, haughty, and effeminate ; their ferocity they derive from their ancestors, the Scythians, and their effeminacy from Greece and Asia. Their pride is beyond all bounds. They are conquerors and they are igno¬ rant ; this makes them despise all other nations.

The form of the Ottoman government is not like that of France and Spain, monarchial and gently authoritative; it still less resembles that of Ger¬ many, which in length of time has become a republic of princes and cities, under one supreme head called an emperor. It has nothing of the Polish form of administration, where the peasants are all slaves, and the nobles kings. Lastly, it is as different from that of England in its constitution as in its climate.

And yet we are not to imagine that it is altogether an arbitrary government, where the law permits a single person to sacrifice the lives of thousands to his caprice, like so many beasts kept in a park for his diversion.

We are apt, through prejudice, to believe that a chiaoux may go with a staff in his hand, and demand, in the name of the sultan, of the master of a family, all the money he has by him, and his

129

Progress of the Turks.

*

daughters, for the use of his master. There are doubtless several horrible abuses in the Turkish administration : but in general these abuses are much less fatal to the people than to those who have a share in the government; for these chiefly feel the weight of the despotic authority. The pri¬ vate sentence of a divan is sufficient to strike off the heads of the greatest officers of state on the most trifling suspicions, there being no supreme court established in this country to enforce a respect for the laws and the person of the anointed sovereign; no barrier opposed in the constitution of the state to the injustice or maladministration of a vizier; therefore few resources for the subject, when oppressed, or the monarch when resisted ; and this prince, who passes for the most powerful in the world, is of all others the least firmly settled on his throne. The revolution of a single day is fre¬ quently sufficient to snatch the crown from him; and in this the Turks have imitated the manners of the Greek Empire which they conquered, only they have more respect for the Ottoman family than the Greeks had for that of their emperors; they depose, they murder their sultan, but it is always in favor of the nearest relative; the Greek Empire, on the contrary, has passed by assassina¬ tions into twenty different families. \

The fear of being deposed is a stronger curb upon ' the Turkish sultan than all the laws of the Koran; and, though absolute master in his own seraglio, Vol. 26 — 9

130 Ancient and Modern History.

and of the lives of all his officers by means of the mufti’s fetfa, he cannot alter the customs of the empire, he cannot increase the taxes, nor can he touch the public money ; he has his private treasury entirely distinct and apart from the public one.

The condition of sultan is, in general, the most indolent upon earth, as that of grand vizier is the most laborious. The minister is obliged to act at the same time as constable, chancellor, and chief president, and the reward for all his labors is fre¬ quently exile or the bowstring.

The office of pasha -is altogether as dangerous, and many pashas are known to have ended their days by a violent death. But all this only proves that the people in Turkey had contracted a habit of cruelty and fierceness, the same as prevailed for a considerable time among the Christians them¬ selves throughout Europe, when so many heads were lost upon the scaffold ; when La Brosse, the favor¬ ite of St. Louis, was hanged ; when the prime minis¬ ter, Laguette, died upon the rack in the reign of Charles the Fair; when Charles de la Cerda, con¬ stable of France, was put to death by King John without form of trial ; when Angueran de Marigni was hanged upon the same gallows which he himself had ordered to be erected at Montfaucon ; and the dead body of the prime minister, Montaign, was carried and hung on the same gibbet ; in a word, when the grand master of the Knights Templars expired in the midst of the flames, and numberless

Progress of the Turks. 13 1

cruelties of the same kind were common in monarch¬ al governments. We should greatly deceive our¬ selves then, if we were to suppose that those barbarities were the effects of absolute power. There never was any one of the Christian potentates des¬ potic, nor is the grand seignior so. Several sultans, as Mahomet II., Selim, and Solyman, have indeed made the laws give way to their wills. But how few conquerors meet with contradiction from their subjects? In a word, our historians have grossly imposed upon us in representing the Ottoman Empire as a government whose essence is despotism.

Count de Marsigli, who knows more of the matter than any of them, expresses himself thus : “ In almost all our histories we find the authority exer¬ cised by the sultans represented as highly despotic; but how distant is this from the truth ! ” “ The

janissary militia,” adds he, “ which they call ‘ Capi- culi,’ and which always resides in Constantinople, has by its laws the power of imprisoning the sultan, and even of putting him to death, and appointing a successor.” A little farther on he says that the grand seignior is frequently obliged to consult the political and military part of the state before he can make war or peace.

Neither are the pashas so absolute in their prov¬ inces as we in general believe, but depend upon their divan. The chief citizens have a right to complain of their conduct, and present their remonstrances to the great divan of Constantinople. In fine, Mar-

1 32 Ancient and Modern History.

sigli concludes by giving the Turkish government the title of a democracy. It is such in fact, and much resembles that of Tunis and Algiers. These mighty sultans then, whom the common people dare not look upon (and those persons are not to be approached but with a submission which seems to border upon adoration), these sultans, I say, have only the exte¬ rior of despotism, and are really absolute no longer than they can safely exercise that fury of arbitrary power which seems born with all men. Louis XI., Henry VIII., and Sextus V. were as despotic princes as any sultan.

If we were to examine in the same manner into the secrets of the sovereign authority in the other kingdoms of Asia, which are still in a manner unknown to us, we should find much less despotism in the world than we in general imagine. Even in Europe we have seen princes, the vassals of other princes not absolute, assume a greater degree of arbitrary power in their own dominions than was ever exercised by the emperors of Persia or India : and yet it would be erroneous to suppose that the dominions of such princes were by their constitu¬ tion essentially despotic.

All the histories of modern nations, excepting perhaps those of England and Germany, have given us false notions of things ; because they have rarely distinguished between times and persons, abuses and laws, accidental events and established cus¬ toms.

133

Progress of the Turks.

We should again be deceived, if we were to look upon the Turkish government as a uniform admin¬ istration, and that every day the sultan can, from his seraglio, by his courtiers, despatch the same orders to all the different provinces in his dominions. This vast empire, which has been formed at different times, and by successive victories, and which we shall find continually increasing till the eighteenth century, is composed of a thousand different nations, all different in language, religion, and customs. They are Greeks from ancient Ionia, the coasts of Asia Minor and Achaia, inhabitants of ancient Colchis, and of the Taurica Chersonesus; they are Getae become Christians, known by the names of Wallachians and Moldavians; they are Arabs, Armenians, Bulgarians, Illyrians, and Jews; lastly, they are Egyptians, and the descendants from the people of ancient Carthage, whom we shall pres¬ ently see swallowed up by the Ottoman power. And all these different nations have been conquered and kept in subjection by the Turkish militia alone. They are all governed differently : some have princes set over them, who are nominated by the Porte; such as Wallachia, Moldavia, and Crimea. The Greeks live under a municipal government, depend¬ ent upon a pasha. The number of the conquered is immense, if compared with that of the victors; for there are but very few natural-born Turks ; none of these follow agriculture, and a very inconsider¬ able number apply themselves to the arts. It may

134 Ancient and Modern History.

be said of them, as Virgil heretofore said of the Romans, “ Their art is to conquer and command.’' The chief difference between the Turkish and the ancient Roman conquerors is, that Rome incorpo¬ rated all the nations she conquered, whereas the Turks always keep themselves separate from those they have subdued, and in the midst of whom they live.

There remained indeed three hundred thousand Greeks in Constantinople, after that city was taken ; but these were only artificers or tradesmen, who worked for their new masters, a people wholly under subjection in their own capital, and not permitted even to dress like the Turks.

To this observation let me add another, namely, that this vast tract of country, from the Archipelago to the Euphrates, was conquered by one single power ; whereas, the united powers of twenty potentates in the Crusades, with more than twenty times the number of forces, were not able, after the labors of two whole centuries, to establish one lasting state in these same countries.

Ricault, who resided a considerable time in Tur¬ key, attributes the lasting power of the Ottoman Empire to something supernatural. He cannot other¬ wise conceive that this government, which depends so frequently upon the caprice of the janissaries, could have supported itself against the turbulency of its own soldiers and the attacks of its enemies. But to this we may reply that the Roman Empire

J35

Progress of the Turks.

supported itself five hundred years in Rome, and nearly fourteen centuries in the Levant, in the midst of seditions and tumults ; and though the imperial succession has been frequently changed, the throne has still remained the same. Now the Turks have a veneration for the Ottoman race, which is to them a fundamental law that they can never think of violating : the government has been frequently wrested out of the hands of the sultan ; but, as we have already remarked, it never passes into a strange family. The constitution itself has nothing to fear, though the monarch and his viziers are frequently made to tremble.

Hitherto this empire has defied all foreign inva¬ sions. The Persians have rarely penetrated into the Turkish frontiers: on the contrary, we shall see Sultan Amurath IV. taking Bagdad from the Per¬ sians by assault, in 1638, remaining still master of Mesopotamia, and at the same time assisting the grand mogul with one army against the Persians, while threatening Venice with another. The Ger¬ mans never yet showed themselves at the gates of Constantinople, as the Turks have at those of Vienna : and it is only since the reign of Peter the Great, that the Russians became formidable to Turkey. In fine, force and cruelty first established the Ottoman Empire, and the divisions of the Chris¬ tians have helped to support it. There is nothing in all this but what is natural. We shall see how this empire augmented its power, and persevered

136 Ancient and Modern History.

for a long time in its ferocity of manners, which at length began to grow somewhat milder.

CHAPTER LXXX.

LOUIS XI., KING OF FRANCE.

When the authority of Charles VII. began to be established in France by the expulsion of the Eng¬ lish, the annexing of a number of provinces to the crown, and the perpetual subsidies granted him, the feudal government was soon extinguished in that kingdom.

From the contrary reason the feudal order was strengthened in Germany, the emperors being elec¬ tive, and as such destitute of either provinces or supplies. Italy was still divided into independent 1 epublics and principalities ; absolute power was wholly unknown in Spain, and in the North; and England, in the midst of her divisions, began to lay the foundation of that extraordinary government, which through the most violent and bloody opposi¬ tion, has in a course of ages produced that happy mixture of liberty and royalty which is the admira¬ tion of all nations.

There were at this time in France only the two great fiefs of Burgundy and Brittany: but these, by their great power, were entirely independent; and, notwithstanding the feudal laws, they were never considered by the other powers of Europe as making any part of the kingdom of France: and

-•

LOUIS X<-y OF FRANCE

*

»

Louis XI.

137

Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, expressly stipu¬ lated with Charles VII., at the time that he forgave him the murder of his father, Duke John, that he was not to do him homage for his dukedom.

The princes of the blood in France had appa¬ nages in peerage, but subject to the jurisdiction of the high court of parliament. The lords, though still possessed of great privileges in their own terri¬ tories, had not as formerly any power in the state ; and there was only the count of Foix on the other side the Loire who had the title of “ Prince by the grace of God,” with a privilege of coining money; but the lords of fiefs, and the corporations of large cities had immense privileges.

Louis XI., son of Charles VII., became the first ■absolute king in Europe, after the decline of the Charlemagne family ; and he did not arrive at the peaceable enjoyment of this power till after many violent struggles. His life is one great contrast, and it is certainly meant to humble and confound virtue that he has been held up as a great king : he whom all historians paint as a most unnatural son, a barbarous brother, a bad father, and a perfidious neighbor! He embittered the last years of his father’s life ; nay, he was the cause of his death ; for everyone knows that the unhappy Charles VII. died through fear that his son should put him to death: that is to say, he chose to abstain from all food rather than run the risk of swallowing the poison that he apprehended his son intended for him.

138 Ancient and Modern History.

Such an apprehension in a parent is alone sufficient to prove that he deemed his son capable of the crime.

After a careful review of the whole conduct of Louis XI., may we not represent him to ourselves as a man who frequently strove to disguise indolence by low artifice, and uphold treachery by cruelty? Otherwise, how came it to pass that in the very beginning of his reign, so many of the great noble¬ men who had been in his father’s interest, and espe¬ cially the famous Count de Dunois, whose sword had so often kept the crown on his head, combined against him in the “ League for the Public Good ” ? They did not take advantage of the weakness of the royal authority, as had so frequently been done before: but Louis had abused his power. It is plain that the father, made wise by his faults and his misfortunes, governed very well ; and that his son, intoxicated with power, began his government very badly.

This league put him in danger of his crown and life. The battle of Montlhery, in 1465, decided little or nothing in his favor; and he had no other way left to break the league than by granting each of the confederates what he pleased to demand : so that his very dexterity in this affair was a proof of his weak¬ ness.

Without the least reason he made himself an irreconcilable enemy in Charles, duke of Burgundy, son of Philip the Good, at that time master of Bur¬ gundy, Franche-Comte, Flanders, Artois, many

Louis XI.

*39

towns on the Somme, and Holland, by stirring up the people of Liege to an act of perfidy against the duke, and afterward to take up arms against him. At the same time he put himself into his hands at Peronne, thinking by that behavior to deceive him the more effectually. Could there be worse policy? He was defeated, in 1468, and saw himself a pris¬ oner in the castle of Peronne, and obliged to march after his vassal against these very people whom he had stirred up to revolt. Could there be a greater humiliation ?

He feared his brother, the duke of Berri, and this prince was poisoned by a Benedictine monk, his con¬ fessor, whose name was Favre Vesois. This is not one of those doubtful acts taken upon trust by the malice or envy of mankind. The duke of Berri was at supper with the lady of Montforau, his mistress, and this confessor; the latter ordered a fish of an extraordinary size to be served up at table. The lady expired immediately after eating, and the prince died some time after, in the most excruciating con¬ vulsions.

Odet Daidie, a brave nobleman, determined to avenge the death of the duke, to whom he had been particularly attached, conveyed the murderer into Brittany, where being out of Louis’s power, he was fairly tried ; but on the day that he was to receive his sentence he was found dead in his bed. Louis, to quiet the public clamor, ordered the papers relat¬ ing to the trial to be sent him. and appointed

140 Ancient and Modern History.

commissioners to examine into the truth of the accu¬ sation. After several deliberations, they resolved upon nothing, and the king loaded them with fav¬ ors. It was not in the least doubted in Europe that Louis was guilty of this murder, who when dauphin, had put his own father, Charles VII., in fear of his life. History should not accuse him of this crime without proof; but it may lament that he gave reason for the suspicion, and should especially remark, that every prince who is guilty of an avowed crime, deserves all the rash judgments which may be made of his actions.

Such was the conduct of Louis XI. with respect to his vassals and his relatives. Let us now see what it was to his neighbors. Edward IV., king of Eng¬ land, makes a descent in France, hoping to recover some part of his predecessor’s conquests. Louis was m a condition to give him battle, but he chose rather to become his tributary. In 1475 he gained over some of the chief officers in the English army, and made presents of wine to all the common soldiers. In fine, he purchased the retreat of this army by his liberalities. Would it not have been more worthy a king of France to have employed this money in putting his kingdom in a posture of defence than in bribing an enemy whom he feared, and whom he should not have feared ?

Noble minds boldly choose their favorites from persons of illustrious birth, and their ministers from those of approved capacity; but Louis’s confidants

Louis XI.

141

and ministers were born among the dregs of the people, and their sentiments were still meaner than their birth.

Few tyrants ever put a greater number of citizens to death by the hands of the executioner, or under more studied torments than this prince ; the chron¬ icles of those times reckon no less than four thou¬ sand public and private executions in the course of his reign ; and the only monuments he has left behind him are the dungeons, iron cages, and instru¬ ments of torture with which he harassed his wretched subjects, and which posterity looks upon with terror.

It is surprising that Father Daniel hardly mentions the punishment inflicted on James d’Armagnac, duke of Nemours, the known descendant of King Clovis. The circumstances and manner of his death, in 1477, the distribution of his estate, and the confinement of his young children during the lifetime of Louis XI., are melancholy and interesting objects of curi¬ osity.

We do not exactly know the nature of this prince’s crime : he was tried by commissioners, which gives room to imagine that he was not really culpable. Some historians idly impute to him the design of seizing the king’s person and killing the dauphin. But such an accusation is hardly to be credited ; for how could a petty prince, who had taken refuge at the foot of the Pyrenees, think of seizing Louis XI. in a time of profound peace, and when that monarch

142 Ancient and Modern History.

was at the zenith of his power, and in full exercise of absolute authority in his kingdom ! The notion of killing the dauphin, who was then an infant, and preserving the father, is another of those extrava¬ gant projects which could never have entered into the mind of a statesman. All that we can find well attested in relation to this affair is, that Louis had the utmost hatred to the Armagnac family ; that he caused the duke of Nemours to be seized at Carlat in 1477 > that he confined him in an iron cage in the Bastille ; and that, having drawn up the articles of his impeachment with his own hand, he sent judges to try him, among whom was that famous traitor, Philip de Comines, who having long sold the secrets of the house of Burgundy to the king, engaged after¬ ward openly in the French service, and whose memoirs are still in great esteem, though written with all the caution of a courtier who was afraid of declaring the truth, even when Louis was no more.

The king ordered the duke of Nemours to be examined in his iron cage, after which he was put to the torture, and received sentence of death. He was then led to confession in a hall hung with black: confession began at that time to be considered as a favor granted to condemned criminals : and mourn¬ ing hangings were used only for princes. It was in this manner that Conradin had been formerly executed at Naples, and that Mary Stuart of Scot¬ land was afterward treated in England.

Louis XI.

*43

But here Louis XI. put in practice a thing hitherto unknown in any country: he caused the duke’s young children to be placed under the scaffold erected for their father’s execution, that they might receive his blood upon them, with which they went away all covered ; and in this condition were con¬ ducted to the Bastille in wooden cages, made in the form of horse-panniers, where the confinement their bodies suffered put them to perpetual torture. In short, the unheard-of tortures these unhappy princes suffered would be incredible, were they not well attested by the petition which they presented to the estates in 1483, after the death of Louis XI.

Never were honor and integrity less regarded than during this reign. The judges were not ashamed to divide among themselves the possession of those whom they condemned.

Amidst the barbarity and ferocity of manners which distinguished the times preceding these, some heroic actions now and then broke forth. The reign of Charles VII. had its Dunois, its La Trimouille, its Clisson, its Richemont, its Saintraille, its La Hire, and many magistrates of approved merit; but dur¬ ing the reign of Louis XI. there appeared not one great man. He had utterly debased the whole nation; virtue was extinct, and servile obedience was the only merit, till at length the people grew easy under their burden, like wretches condemned to the galleys for life.

But with all this cruelty and craft Louis had two

144 Ancient and Modern History.

predominant passions, which one would imagine should have humanized his manners ; these were love and devotion. He had mistresses, he had bas¬ tards, and he performed pilgrimages ; but his love was consistent with the rest of his character; and his devotion was only the superstitious fear of a timorous and bewildered mind. He always went covered with relics, and constantly wore a leaden figure of the Virgin Mary in his hat, of which it is said he used to ask pardon for his murders before he committed them. He made a deed of the earl¬ dom of Bologne to the Holy Virgin. True piety does not consist in making the Virgin Mary a coun¬ tess, but in refraining from those actions which our consciences condemn, and which God seldom fails to punish.

He introduced the Italian custom of ringing a bell at noon, when everyone was to say an Ave Maria. He asked permission of the pope to wear the sur¬ plice and the amusse, and to be a second time anointed with the holy oil of Rheims.

At length, being sensible of the approach of death, he shut himself up in the castle of Plessis- les-Tours, in 1403, and, inaccessible to everyone, sur¬ rounded by guards, and a prey to the most bitter reflections, he sent for a hermit of Calabria, called Francisco Martorillo, since adored as a saint under the name of St. Francisco de Paulo, and throwing himself at his feet, entreated him with a flood of tears, to intercede with God that his life might be

Louis XI.

I45

prolonged ; as if the voice of a Calabrian friar in a village of France could arrest the ordinance of God, or preserve a weak and perverse soul in a wornout body, contrary to the rules of nature. While he was thus begging for life of a foreign hermit, he thought to recruit the weak remains that were left by drinking the blood of young children, fondly imagining to correct thereby the acrimony of his own.

Certainly no one could experience a more melan¬ choly situation than to be in the midst of power and prosperity, the continual victim of uneasiness, remorse, fear, and the shame of being universally detested.

And yet he was the first of the kings of France who took and used the title of Most Christian King; at about the same time as Ferdinand of Aragon, as famous for his perfidies as his conquests, took that of Catholic.

Notwithstanding his many vices, Louis had some good qualities. He was valiant and liberal : he was veil acquainted with men and things : he would have justice executed; and no one but himself dared to be unjust.

When Paris had been laid waste by a plague, it was repeopled through his care; on this occasion indeed he received a number of robbers and free¬ booters, but the severity of his administration soon made them good citizens. In his time this city con¬ tained eighty thousand burghers able to bear arms.

146 Ancient and Modern History.

To him the people were first indebted for the lower¬ ing of the power of the grandees. This made about fifty thousand families murmur against him ; but it procured, or should have procured him, the bless¬ ings of above five hundred thousand.

He it was who established the posts, though not on the same footing as they now are in Europe. He only revived the veredarii of Charlemagne, and the ancient Roman Empire. He kept two hundred and thirty couriers, at his own expense, to carry his orders incessantly through the kingdom. Private persons had the use of the horses belonging to these couriers, on paying ten sols per horse for every journey of thirty leagues. Letters were delivered from town to town by the king’s couriers. This branch of police was for a long time unknown in France. He also endeavored to establish one stand¬ ard for weights and measures throughout the kingdom, as had been done in the time of Charle¬ magne. In a word, he proved that a bad man may be a public benefactor when his private interest is not against it.

The taxes in the reign of Charles VII., inde¬ pendent of the royal demesnes, amounted to seven¬ teen hundred thousand livres of that currency. In the reign of Louis XI. they were four and a half millions of livres, which, at ten livres to the mark, will make twenty-three and a half millions of our present currency. Now, if we examine the price of commodities according to this proportion, especially

Louis XI.

H7

corn, which is the principal one, we shall find that they were not worth above one-half of what they are at present: so that with twenty-three and a half millions, the government then answered all the pur¬ poses for which it is at present obliged to expend forty-six.

Such was the condition of the French power before Burgundy, the Franche-Comte, Artois, the territory of Boulogne, the cities on the Somme, Provence, and Anjou, were annexed to the mon¬ archy of Louis XI. This kingdom soon afterward became the most powerful in Europe, and might be compared to a river swelled by a thousand lesser streams, and cleared from the mud and weeds which had so long interrupted its course.

Titles at this time first began to be given to power. Louis XI. was the first king of France who had the title of Majesty given him, which before was only given to the emperor, and which the German chancery has never granted to any king even to this day. The kings of Aragon, Castile, and Portugal had the title of Highness. The king of England was styled Your Grace : and Louis XI. might have been called Your Despotship.

We have now seen by what a series of fortunate crimes he came to be the first absolute king in Europe since the establishment of the great feudal government. Ferdinand the Catholic could never attain this power in Aragon. Isabella had the address to work the minds of her Castilians to pas-

148 Ancient and Modern History.

sive obedience, but she never reigned absolute. Every state, every province, every city through¬ out Europe had its particular privileges ; the feudal lords often opposed these privileges, and the kings frequently attempted to subject both the feudal lords and the cities to their obedience ; but neither of them accomplished it till Louis XI., and he only, by spill¬ ing the blood of Armagnac and Luxembourg on the scaffold, sacrificing everything to his vengeance, and paying dearly for the execution of his vile purposes. Isabella of Castile managed with more cunning and less cruelty ; for instance, how did she act when wanting to unite the duchy of Placentia to her own crown? By means of insinuations and money she excited the vassals of the duke of Placentia to revolt against him. They accordingly assemble, and demand to be admitted as vassals of Queen Isabella, and she, out of complaisance, complies with their request.

Louis XI., at the same time that he increased his power over his subjects by his rigorous adminis¬ tration, enlarged his kingdom by his industry and application to public business. He procured the county of Provence in legacy from its last sover¬ eign count, and thus deprived the empire of a feuda¬ tory, as Philip of Valois had done with regard to Dauphiny. He annexed Anjou and Maine, which belonged to this count, to the crown of France ; and thus, by skill, money, and good fortune, did the kingdom of France, which from the reign of Hugh

Burgundy. 149

Capet had been of little or no consideration, and which had been almost finally destroyed by the Eng¬ lish, become a considerable state. The same good fortune procured it the addition of Burgundy; and the faults of the last duke restored to the state this province which the imprudence of its kings had separated from it.

CHAPTER LXXXI.

BURGUNDY AND THE SWISS NATION, IN THE TIME OF LOUIS XI., IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

Charles the Rash, who was descended in a right line from John, king of France, held the duchy of Burgundy as an appanage of his house, together with the cities upon the Somme, which had been ceded to his family by Charles VII. He was also possessed by right of succession of the Franche- Comte, Artois, Flanders, and almost all Holland. His cities in the Low Countries were in a flourish¬ ing condition, by means of their extensive commerce, which almost equalled that of Venice ; Antwerp was the staple of the northern nations, the town of Ghent employed fifty thousand workmen in their woollen manu factor)', Bruges hatj as great a trade as Ant¬ werp, and Arras was .then famous for those fine hangings which still go by its name in Germany, England, and Italy.

It was then customary for princes to sell their dominions when they were in want of money, as a

150 Ancient and Modern History.

private person now sells his house, or his estate. This custom took place after the Crusades ; Ferdi¬ nand, king of Aragon, sold Roussillon to Louis XI., with right of redemption ; Charles, duke of Bur¬ gundy, had lately purchased the province of Guel- ders, and a duke of Austria had sold him all the demesnes he possessed in Alsace, and the neighbor¬ hood of Switzerland. This acquisition was worth much more than Charles gave for it, who now saw himself in possession of a state which reached from the banks of the Somme to the gates of Strasburg; he had nothing to do therefore but to enjoy his good fortune. Few kings in Europe were so powerful as himself, and not one more rich or magnificent ; but he wished to erect his state into a kingdom which might one day have proved very prejudicial to France, lo effect this, nothing more was neces¬ sary than to purchase a diploma of the Emperor Frederick III., the custom being still preserved of asking the title of king of the emperors, as a kind of homage paid to the ancient Roman Empire. Charles, however, failed in this negotiation ; but as he designed to add Lorraine and Switzerland to his dominions, he was sure that if he succeeded he might make himself king without the permission of anyone. .

He took no pains to disguise his ambition, and this procured him the surname of the Rash. We may form an idea of his haughtiness by his manner of receiving the deputies from Switzerland, in 1474.

Burgundy. 151

The writers of that country affirm that he obliged them to address him upon their knees. This is a strange contradiction in the manners of a free nation which soon after became his conquerors.

The foundation of the duke of Burgundy’s preten¬ sions to this homage to which the Helvetic body submitted, was as follows: Several Swiss villages were situated in the midst of the demesnes which he had purchased of the duke of Austria, and he thought when he made this purchase, that he bought these people likewise as slaves : the deputies of the commons always addressed the king of France upon the knee, and the duke of Burgundy had always kept up the etiquette of the chiefs of his house. We have elsewhere observed that several kings, after the example of the emperor, had insisted on the cere¬ mony of the bended knee when spoken to, or pre¬ sented with anything; and that this custom, which came originally from Asia, had been introduced by Constantine, and before him by Diocletian. Hence came the custom, that a vassal should do homage to his lord by kneeling with both knees upon the ground, and likewise the custom of kissing the pope’s feet. This is the history of human vanity.

Philip of Comines, and the crowd of historians that followed him, pretend that the war against the Swiss, which proved so fatal to the duke of Bur¬ gundy, was occasioned by a cartload of sheepskins. The slightest occasion will kindle a war when mat¬ ters are ripe for it: but Louis XI. had for a long

*5^ Ancient and Modern History.

time been endeavoring to animate the Swiss against the duke of Burgundy, and many acts of hostility had passed between both parties, before the adven¬ ture of the sheepskins. The truth is, that Charles’s ambition was the only occasion of the war.

There were at that time only eight Swiss cantons : Freiburg, Soleure, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell, not having then entered into the alliance ; nor did Basel, an imperial town, whose situation on the Rhine made it a rich and flourishing port, make a part of this infant republic, known then only for its poverty, simplicity, and courage. The deputies of Berne presented a remonstrance to this ambitious prince, setting forth that their whole country was not worth the spurs worn by his knights. These deputies did not address Charles upon the knee ; they spoke with humility, and defended themselves bravely.

The duke’s gendarmerie, whose armor w^s all covered with gold, were twice beaten, in 1476, and suffered the most shameful defeat from these humble villagers, who were astonished at the richness of the spoils they found in the enemy’s camp.

Could it have been foreseen, that, when the largest diamond in Europe, taken by a Swiss soldier in the battle of Granson, was sold by him to his general for a crown ; could it have been foreseen, I say, at that time, that one day there should be as beautiful and opulent cities in Switzerland as the capital of the duchy of Burgundy then was ? The luxury of jewels and rich stuffs was for a long time

Burgundy. 153

unknown to those people, and when it came to be known, it was prohibited ; but the solid riches, which consist in agriculture, were always left free, to be gathered by the free and victorious hands of the inhabitants. The conveniences of life have been more sought after by them of late ; and the pleas¬ ures of society and sound philosophy, without which society can afford no lasting pleasure, have found their way into those parts of Switzerland where the climate is more mild, and where plenty now reigns. In fine, in some parts of this country, formerly so wild and uncouth, they have at length found the way to join the politeness of Athens with the Spartan simplicity.

In the meantime Charles the Rash determined to avenge himself upon Lorraine, and wrest the city of Nancy — - which he had taken once before — from its lawful possessor, Duke Rene ; but these very Swiss, who had formerly conquered him, being now — 1477 — joined by the people of Freiburg and Soleure, who in that rendered themselves worthy of the alliance, again defied the usurper of their country, who purchased with his blood the title of Rash, bestowed upon him by posterity.

Then it was that Louis XI. made himself master of Artois and the cities in the Somme, and of the duchy of Burgundy as a male fief, and of the city of Besanqon, as lying very convenient for him.

Princess Mary, daughter of Charles the Rash, and sole heiress of so many provinces, saw herself by

154 Ancient and Modern History.

this means stripped in an instant of two-thirds of her inheritance. Louis might also have added to the kingdom of France the Seventeen Provinces, which almost all belonged to this princess, by marrying her to his son ; but he vainly flattered himself with hav¬ ing her for daughter-in-law whom he had stripped of her dominions; and thus this great politician missed an opportunity of annexing Franche-Comte and all the Low Countries to his kingdom.

The people of Ghent and of the rest of the towns in Flanders, who enjoyed more freedom at that time under their sovereigns, than even the English do under their kings, destined Maximilian, son of the emperor Frederick III., for a consort to their prin¬ cess.

At present subjects learn the marriages of their princes, the making of war and peace, the laying on of taxes, and in short the whole of their destiny, from the declarations issued by their masters, but it was not so in Flanders : the people of Ghent deter¬ mined that their princess should marry a German : and they cut off the heads of Princess Mary’s chan¬ cellor, and of her chamberlain, Imbercourt, for having entered into a treaty of marriage for her with the dauphin of France ; and,these two ministers were executed in 1478, in the very presence of the young princess, who pleaded in vain for their pardon with these rough people.

Maximilian, who was invited rather by the people than the princess, repaired to Ghent to conclude his

Chivalry. 155

nuptials, like a private gentleman going to make his fortune by marrying a rich heiress ; his wife defrayed the expense of his journey, his equipage, and his household. But, though he espoused Mary, he did not get possession of her dominions, and was only the husband of a sovereign princess ; and even when at the death of his wife he became guardian of their son ; when he had the government of the Low Countries, and even after he came to be king of the Romans, and emperor, the inhabitants of Bruges imprisoned him in 1488 for four months, for having violated their privileges. Thus, if princes have frequently abused their powers, the people on the other hand have as much abused their privileges.

This marriage of the heiress of Burgundy with Maximilian proved the source of all those wars which have for such a number of years set the house of France at variance with that of Austria. This it was which gave rise to the greatness of Charles V., and brought Europe to the brink of slavery: all through the obstinacy of the citizens of Ghent, in marrying their princess.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

CHIVALRY.

The extinction of the house of Burgundy, the administration of Louis XI., and, above all, the new method of making war lately introduced throughout Europe, had little by little contributed to the aboli-

156 Ancient and Modern History.

tion of that kind of military dignity or brotherhood, known by the name of chivalry, of which only the shadow is now left.

This chivalry was a military institution which had arisen of itself among the great lords, in the same manner as religious societies or brotherhoods had been established among the citizens. This insti¬ tution owed its birth to the anarchy and rapine which desolated all Europe upon the decline of the Charle¬ magne family. The nobles of all degrees, dukes, counts, viscounts, vidames, castellans, were now sovereign princes in their own territories, and con¬ tinually making war upon one another ; and, instead of the great armies of Charles Martel, Pepin, and Charlemagne, almost all Europe was divided into small troops of seven or eight hundred men, and sometimes much less. Two or three towns made a petty state, which was incessantly fighting with its neighboring states. The communication between the provinces was cut off, the high roads were neg¬ lected, or so infested with robbers that the merchant could no longer travel in safety, or bring his com¬ modities to market, without which there was no subsisting. Every possessor of a castle stopped them upon the road and laid them under contribution, and many of the larger castles upon the borders of the rivers were real dens of thieves, who not only plun¬ dered the merchants, but frequently carried off all the women that came in their way.

Several of the lords by degrees entered into asso-

Chivalry. 1 57

ciations for the defence of the public safety, and the protection of the ladies, to which they bound themselves by oath ; and this virtuous institution, by being made a religious act, became an indispen¬ sable duty; several associations of this kind were formed in most of the provinces, and every lord of a large fief held it an honor to be a knight and to be admitted to this order.

Toward the eleventh century there were several religious and profane ceremonies appointed for the observance of each candidate, which seemed to throw a new character upon the order. The person who stood for admittance was to fast, to confess himself, to receive the sacrament, and to pass one whole night under arms : after this he was to sit at a table by' himself, while his godfather and the ladies that were to arm the new knight dined at another. The can¬ didate, clad in a white robe, was at his little table by himself, where it was forbidden him to speak, laugh, or even to touch food. The next day he was to make his entrance into the church, with his sword hanging about his neck, and received the priest’s benediction ; he was then to go and kneel down before the lord or lady who was to invest him with his armor of knighthood. Those of the assist¬ ants who were qualified put on his spurs, clad him with his cuirass, his cap, his cuishes, his gaunt¬ lets, and the coat of mail called the hauberk. The godfather who installed him gave him three strokes with the flat of his sword on the neck, in the name

T 5 8 Ancient and Modern History.

of God, St. Michael, and St. George. And, from this instant, every time he heard mass he drew his sword at the reading of the Gospel and held it upright.

The installation was followed by a magnificent entertainment, and frequently by a tournament ; but these were always at the people’s expense. The great feudal lords imposed a tax upon their vassals, on the day that any of their children were made knights. Young people were generally admitted to this honor at the age of twenty-one: before that they were termed bachelors, which is as much as to say lesser knights, varlets, or squires ; and the lords who were incorporated in these military soci¬ eties frequently gave their children to each other, to be brought up at a distance from the parental roof, under the name of varlets, or apprentices in chivalry.

These knights were in greatest vogue in the time of the Crusades. The lords of fiefs, who brought vassals into the field under their banner, were called knights-banneret ; not that the title of knight alone gave them the privilege of appearing in the field with banners. It was their power, and not the ceremony of installation, which enabled them to raise troops and keep them on foot. They were bannerets in virtue of their fiefs, and not of their knighthood; this title being only a distinction introduced by cus¬ tom ; a kind of conventional honor, and not any real dignity in the state, nor of the least weight in the form of government. The knights had no share

Chivalry. 159

in the elections of emperors or kings; nor was it necessary to have been dubbed a knight to be admitted to a seat in the diets of the empire, the parliaments of France, or the cortes of Spain. In a word, none of the essentials of government, such as enfeoffments, rights of dependency and juris¬ diction, inheritance, or laws, had any connection with chivalry. The chief privileges of this insti¬ tution consisted in bloody exhibitions and tourna¬ ments. A bachelor or esquire was not in general allowed to enter the lists against a knight.

Kings themselves frequently entered into this order, but this made no addition to their honor or power ; they did it only to encourage chivalry and valor by their example. The knights were always treated with great respect by the community, and that was all.

But after King Edward III. instituted the Order of the Garter ; Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, that of the Golden Fleece ; and Louis XI. the Order of St. Michael, which at its first institution was as noble as either of the other two, though now so ridiculously disgraced; then the ancient chivalry began to decline. It had no longer any distinguish¬ ing mark, nor a chief to confer the particular honors and privileges of the order. And there were no longer any knights banneret after the kings and great princes had erected military companies; so that chivalry became then only a name. The honor of knighthood was generally conferred by a great

160 Ancient and Modern History.

prince, on some renowned warrior. Those lords who were of any established rank of dignity took, with the rest of their titles, that of knight; and all those who made profession of arms called them¬ selves esquires.

The military orders of knighthood, as those of the Templars, of Malta, the Teutonic Order, and sev¬ eral others, are only imitations of the ancient chiv¬ alry, and have added religious ceremonies to the military function. But this kind of chivalry is quite different from the ancient institution, and was only

m

productive of certain orders of military monks, founded by the popes, endowed with benefices, and confined to three orders of monks. Of these extraor¬ dinary orders, some have been great conquerors, others have been suppressed on account of their debaucheries, and others still continue to subsist in high reputation.

The Teutonic was a sovereign order, as that of Malta still is, and will long continue to be.

Almost every province in Europe has endeavored to establish an order of knighthood. The simple title of knight, bestowed by the kings of England upon some of the principal citizens without their being incorporated into any particular order, is derived from the ancient chivalry, but differs widely from its original. The ancient chivalry has been preserved nowhere but in France, in the ceremony of creating knights all the ambassadors sent to that court from the republic of Venice; and in this

Feudal Government. 161

installation the dubbing-, or striking with the sword, is the only part of the original institution which is preserved.

Here we have exhibited to us a varied picture, and, if we attentively trace the chain of all the cus¬ toms in Europe since the time of Charlemagne, in state, church, war, honors, finances, and society, nay, even in dress itself, we shall meet with nothing but one perpetual change.

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

THE FEUDAL GOVERNMENT IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, AFTER THE DEATH OF LOUIS XI.

You have already seen how in Italy, France, and Germany anarchy was turned into despotism, under the reign of Charlemagne, and despotism again over¬ turned by anarchy under his descendants.

You are sensible how wrong it is to think that there were no hereditary fiefs before the time of Hugh Capet. Normandy is a strong instance of the contrary. Bavaria and Aquitaine were hereditary fiefs before Charlemagne’s time, as were almost all the Italian fiefs under the Lombard kings. In the reign of Charles the Fat and the Simple, the great officers of state and some bishops arrogated to them¬ selves the rights of regality. But there were always possessors of large, territories under the title of Sires in France, Herren in Germany, and Ricos Hombres in Spain. There are always, likewise,

162

Ancient and Modern History.

some great cities governed by their own magistrates, as Rome, Milan, Lyons, Rheims, etc. Now the bounds of the liberties of these cities, and those of the power of particular lords, have been always changing; and force and fortune have determined everything. If some of the great officers became usurpers, the father of Charlemagne had been the same. Pepin, the grandson of Arnold, bishop of Metz, and preceptor to Dagobert, dethroned the family of Clovis ; Hugh Capet dispossessed Pepin’s family; and the descendants of this Hugh Capet were never able to reassemble the scattered mem¬ bers of the French monarchy.

The feudal power in France received a mortal blow from Louis XI., and was vigorously opposed in Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. In England it had been obliged to give way to the mixed form of government. It still subsisted in Poland, though under another form. But in Germany it remained in full vigor, and was even increasing every day. The count of Boulainvilliers calls this constitution “ The effort of human genius.” Loiseau and other great civilians term it “ An extravagant institution ; a monster composed of members without a head.”

We cannot think it a very powerful effort of genius, but rather the mere natural and common effect of human reason and ambition, for those who were in possession of lands to be desirous of being masters in their own territories. The great land¬ holders, from the midst of Muscovy to the mountains

Feudal Government.

i63

of Castile, have all thought in the same manner, though they may not perhaps have communicated their ideas to each other, and were all equally desirous that their lives and estates should not depend upon the absolute power of a king. They have associated together in every country to oppose this power, and at the same time have exercised it as much as they were able upon their own vassals and subjects.

This kind of government prevailed in Europe for more than five hundred years; it was indeed unknown among the Greeks and Romans. But cer¬ tainly that cannot properly be called an extrava¬ gant institution which has been so universally received in Europe. It is doubtless an unjust one, because the greater number are crushed by the fewer, and the private citizen can never hope to rise but by a general subversion of the state. No flourishing cities, no extensive commerce, nor any encourage¬ ment for the polite arts can be found under a govern¬ ment purely feudal ; and the powerful cities in Ger¬ many and Flanders flourished only in consequence of a short interval of liberty. The cities of Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp, for example, are to be con¬ sidered rather as republics under the protection of the dukes of Burgundy, than towns subject to the arbitrary authority of those dukes. The same may be said of the imperial cities.

You have seen a feudal anarchy establish itself through a great part of Europe under the successors

164 Ancient and Modern History.

of Charlemagne : but before his time, and under the Lombard kings, the feudal form of government was more regular. The Franks, when they invaded Gaul, divided among themselves the territories of Clovis : therefore the count of Boulainvilliers will have it that the lords of castles were all sovereign princes in France. But what person not possessed of terri¬ tories can say, “ I am a descendant of one of the con¬ querors of Gaul ? ” Or, though he should be descended in a right line from any one of those usurpers, would not the cities and the commons have a better right to recover their liberty than this Frank ever could have had to deprive them of it?

It cannot be said that the feudal power in Ger¬ many was established by right of conquest, as it was in Lombardy and France. Germany was never entirely conquered by foreigners ; and yet it is, at this time, the only country in the world where the feudal law truly subsists. The Boyards of' Russia have their subjects, but they are subjects themselves, and do not form a body politic like the German princes. The Tartar khans and the princes of Wal- lachia and Moldavia are real feudal lords, holding of the Grand Seignior. But then they are liable to be deposed by an order of divan ; whereas the German lords cannot be dispossessed but by the general decree of the whole nation. The Polish nobility are more upon an equality with one another than the land-holders in Germany ; therefore this is not a real feudal government. There are no rear-

Feudal Government. 165

vassals in Poland. A nobleman there is not the subject of another nobleman, as in Germany. Poland is an aristocratic republic, where the common people are all slaves.

The feudal law is on a different footing in Italy. Every territory is deemed a fief of the empire in Lombardy, which occasions great uncertainty ; for the emperors are supreme lords of those fiefs, only in quality of kings of Italy, and successors to the kings of Lombardy. Now certainly a Diet of Rat- isbon is not king of Italy. But what has happened from this? The Germanic liberty having prevailed over the imperial authority in Germany, and the empire having become a distinct thing from the emperor, the Italian fiefs call themselves vassals of the empire, and not of the emperor. Thus one feudal administration has become another feudal adminis¬ tration. The fief of Naples, again, is of a nature entirely different from either of these. It is a homage paid by the stronger to the weaker ; a kind of ceremony kept up by custom.

Everything has been a fief in Europe, and the laws of fiefs have been everywhere different. When the male branch of Burgundy became extinct, Louis XI. thought he had a right to succeed to that duke¬ dom. But if the house of Saxony or Bavaria was to fail, the emperor would have no right to take possession of those provinces : nor would the pope have any claim to the kingdom of Naples, in case the reigning family was to become extinct. These

1 66 Ancient and Modern History.

rights are all derived from force, custom, or agree¬ ment. Force gave Burgundy to Louis XL, for there was still a prince of that house living, the count of Nevers, who was a descendant of the lawful pos¬ sessors, but dared not assert his right. It was no less scandalous that Mary of Burgundy was excluded from the succession, for in the grant made of the dominion of Burgundy to her ancestors by King John of France, it is expressly said that the heirs shall succeed to the honors ; now a daughter is an heiress.

The question concerning male and female fiefs, the right of liege homage or simple homage ; the confu¬ sion among those lords who held different lands in vassalage of two lords paramount at a time, and among the vassals of lords paramount who contested the supreme demesne, and a thousand difficulties of like nature, gave rise to numberless processes which could be decided only by the force of arms. The fortunes and possessions of private citizens were still in a more unhappy situation.

What must be the situation of that vassal whose lord is himself, subject to another, who holds of a third ! Fie must be involved in suits in almost every court, and lose all he is worth before he can obtain a final decree. It is certain that the people never voluntarily made choice of this form of gov¬ ernment ; nor is that country worthy to be inhabited, where all degrees and conditions are not equally subjected to the laws.

Charles VIII.

167

CHAPTER LXXXIV.

CHARLES VIII. AND EUROPE, WHEN THAT PRINCE UNDERTOOK THE CONQUEST OF NAPLES.

Louis XI. left his son, Charles VIII., a child of fourteen years of age, weak in body and unimproved in mind, master of the finest and most powerful kingdom in Europe. But he left him at the same time a civil war, which is almost the inseparable attendant of a minority. The young king was indeed no longer a minor by Charles V.’s law, but he was still so by nature. His eldest sister, Anne, wife of Beau jeu, duke of Bourbon, was left regent by her father’s will, and is said to have been very worthy of this high post. Louis, duke of Orleans, first prince of the blood, and afterward that Louis XII. whose memory is still so dear, began by being the scourge of the kingdom to which he afterward proved the tenderest parent. In the first place, his rank of first prince of the blood had been so far from procuring him any share in the government that it had not even given him the right of prece¬ dence over those peers who were of more ancient creation. On the other hand, it seemed extraor¬ dinary that a woman who was by law declared inca¬ pable of ascending the throne should nevertheless reign under another name. These considerations excited Louis of Orleans, who was of an ambitious temper — as the most virtuous frequently are — to

1 68 Ancient and Modern History.

raise a civil war against the king, his master, in order to be made his guardian.

The parliament of Paris then found, for the first time, of how much consideration it might be during a minority. The duke of Orleans applied in per¬ son to the courts for an order to alter the adminis¬ tration. La Vaquerie, the first president, who was an able lawyer, made him answer that the parliament had nothing to do either with the finances or the government of the state, which belonged to the states-general, whom the parliament did not rep¬ resent.

This reply proves that the city of Paris at that time was in full tranquillity, and that the parliament was in the interest of Madame de Beaujeu. A civil war now — in 1488 — broke out in the provinces, and especially in that of Brittany, where the old duke, Francis II., espoused the cause of the duke of Orleans. A battle was fought near St. Aubin in Brittany; and here it must be observed that, in the army of the Bretons and the duke of Orleans, there were between four and five hundred English, notwithstanding the troubles which then distracted that country, and drained it of its soldiers. The English have seldom stood neutral when France was to be attacked. The rebel army was defeated by that great general, Louis de la Trimouille, and the duke of Orleans, who afterward came to be sovereign, was taken prisoner. Louis may be reckoned the third king of the Capet family who had been taken

Charles VIII.

169

prisoner in battle, and he was not the last. The duke of Orleans continued prisoner nearly three years in the tower of Bourges, till Charles VIII. went in person — in 1491 — to deliver him. The manners of the French were much milder than those of the English, who, harassed with continual civil wars at that time, made it their common practice to put to death by the hands of the executioner those whom they conquered in battle.

The peace and greatness of France were at length happily established by the marriage of Charles VIII., who obliged the old duke of Brittany to give him his daughter to wife, with all his dominions in dowry. Princess Anne of Brittany, one of the most beauti¬ ful women of her age, had a passion for the duke of Orleans, who was still in the flower of his youth, and master of many amiable accomplishments ; and who, by this civil war, found himself deprived at once of his liberty and his mistress.

Upon the marriage of princes in Europe, depends the fate of their people. Charles VIII., who, during the lifetime of his father, might have espoused the princess Mary, heiress of Burgundy, might now have had to wife the daughter -of this Mary, and of Maximilian, king of the Romans ; and Maximilian, on his side, who had lost his queen, Mary of Bur¬ gundy, had, not without reason, entertained hopes of obtaining Anne of Brittany for his second con¬ sort. He had even gone so far as to espouse her by proxy; and the count of Nassau had, according

170 Ancient and Modern History.

to the custom of those times, put one leg into the princess’ bed, in the name of the king of the Ro¬ mans. But this did not hinder the king of France from concluding his marriage ; and he obtained the princess, together with Brittany for her portion, which has since been reduced to a province of France.

France was then in its zenith of glory, and noth¬ ing but the many errors it was afterward guilty of could have prevented it from being the arbiter of Europe.

We may remember that the last count of Provence bequeathed his dominions to Louis XI. This count, in whom the house of Anjou became extinct, took the title of king of the two Sicilies, which his family had lost the possession of for a long time. This title he also left to Louis XI., by the donation of the county of Provence. Charles V III., determining not to wear an empty title, made all preparations for the conquest of Naples, and the dominion of all Italy.

Here we must stop and take a view of the state of Europe toward the end of the fifteenth centurv, when these events took place.

CHAPTER LXXXV.

EUROPE AT THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

At this time — 1493 — the emperor Frederick III., of the house of Austria, died, leaving the empire to his son, Maximilian, who was in his father’s life-

Europe at End of XV. Century. iyi

time elected king of the Romans. But these kings of the Romans had no power in Italy, and that which was left them in Germany was little more than that of a doge of Venice ; besides this, the house of Aus¬ tria was far from being formidable in itself. They may in vain show the tomb of this emperor at Vienna, with this epitaph : “ Here lies Frederick III., the pious and august emperor, sovereign of Chris¬ tendom, king of Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, arch¬ duke of Austria, ’ etc., but this only serves to show the vanity of such inscriptions. Frederick never en¬ joyed anything appertaining to Hungary but the crown, ornamented with a few jewels, which he always kept locked in his closet, and would never restore to his pupil, Ladislaus, who was the true king of Hungary, nor to those whom the Hungarians afterward chose for their sovereigns, and who de¬ fended them against the Turks. He was possessed of barely half the province of Austria : his cousins had the rest ; and as to the title of sovereign of Chris¬ tendom, it is easy to see how well he deserved that. His son, Maximilian, had, besides the demesnes left him by his father, the regency of the dominions of Mary of Burgundy, his wife; but he governed only in the name of his son, Philip the Handsome. As to the rest, we know that he was called “Massimiliano pochi danari; ” a surname which does not show him to have been a prince of any great power.

England, which was still little better than a nation of savages, after having been long rent to pieces

172 Ancient and Modern History.

by the civil wars of the white and red roses, in the manner which we shall soon relate, had but just begun to breathe under Henry VII., who, after the example of Louis XI., humbled the barons, and favored the people.

SPArN — THE UNFORTUNATE REIGN OF HENRY IV., SURNAMED THE IMPOTENT - ISABELLA AND FER¬

DINAND- — THE TAKING OF GRANADA, AND THE PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS.

The Christian princes of Spain had always been at variance with one another. The race of Henry de Transtamare, the bastard usurper — since we must call things by their proper names — still continued to reign in Castile, and a usurpation of a more singu¬ lar kind laid the foundation of the Spanish grandeur.

Henry IV., one of the descendants of Transta¬ mare, who began his unhappy reign in 1454, was totally enervated by his pleasures. Never can a court be entirely given up to debaucheries, but revolutions, or at least seditions, must be the con¬ sequences. Donna Juana, his queen, whom we shall call by this name to distinguish her from his daugh¬ ter, I rincess Joan, and several other princesses of the same name, was a daughter of Portugal : she took not the least pains to conceal her gallantries, and few women ever carried on their amours with less regard to decency. Henry IV. passed his time with his wife’s lovers, and these diverted themselves with the king’s mistresses. In short, everything con-

Spain. 173

spired to set the Spaniards an example of the greatest effeminacy and most consummate debauch¬ ery. The administration being so weak, the mal¬ contents, who make the majority at all times, and in all countries, became very numerous in Castile. This kingdom was then governed as France, Eng¬ land, Germany, and all the other monarchial states in Europe had for a long time been. The vassals shared in the sovereign authority ; and if the bishops were not like those in Germany, sovereign princes, they were lords and great vassals, the same as in France.

An archbishop of Toledo, named Carillo, with several other bishops, headed the party against the king, and renewed in Spain the same disorders which had afflicted France in the reign of Louis the Feeble, Germany, under a number of its emperors, and which we shall soon see appear again in France under Flenry III., and desolate England in the reign of Charles I.

1465 — The rebels, now grown powerful, deposed their king in effigy, a ceremony which had never before entered into the heads of any faction.

They erected a great stage on the plain of Avila, upon which was placed a sorry wooden figure, repre¬ senting Flenry IV., dressed in his robes and other ensigns of royalty. To this figure they read the sen¬ tence of deposition, after which the archbishop of Toledo took off the crown, another person the sword, and a third took away the sceptre ; they then,

174 Ancient and Modern History.

from the same stage, proclaimed a young brother of Henry’s, named Alphonso, king in his stead. This farce was followed by all the horrors of civil war, which did not cease even after the death of the young prince, on whom the conspirators had bestowed the kingdom. The archbishop and his party declared the king impotent, at the very time that he was surrounded by mistresses ; and, by a proceeding unheard of in any state, pronounced his daughter Joan a bastard, and born in adultery.

Several of the grandees on this occasion laid claim to the crown, but the rebels agreed to acknowledge the king’s sister, Isabella, a princess of seventeen years of age, rather than submit to one of their equals ; and chose rather to lay the kingdom waste in the name of a young queen, who had as yet no interest, than to raise up any person to be their master.

The archbishop who had made war against his king in the name of the infant, now continued to carry it on in the name of the infanta ; and Henry could not extricate himself from all these troubles, nor remain quiet upon his throne, until he had signed, in 1468, one of the most shameful treaties that had ever been extorted from a sovereign; by which he acknowledged his sister Isabella as the only lawful heiress to his kindom, in prejudice to the undoubted rights of his own daughter, Joan ; and at this price he purchased of his rebellious subjects the empty title of king.

*75

Spain.

But, in order to complete their work, it was nec¬ essary to provide the young princess Isabella a hus¬ band able to defend her claim. For this purpose they cast their eyes on Ferdinand, heir to the crown of Aragon, a prince nearly the same age as Isabella. The archbishop married them privately; and this marriage, concluded under such fatal auspices, proved nevertheless the foundation of the Spanish greatness. At first, it revived all the former divi¬ sions, civil wars, fraudulent treaties, and those out¬ ward reconciliations which serve only to augment a mutual hatred. Henry, after having once more settled matters on a quiet footing, was attacked with a violent disorder at an entertainment given by one of these reconciled enemies, and died soon after, in 1474.

He vainly bequeathed his kingdom to his daughter Joan, and swore in vain that she was his lawful daughter ; neither his death-bed oaths, nor the assev¬ erations of his queen, availed aught against the party of Isabella and Ferdinand — afterward surnamed the Catholic king of Aragon and Sicily. They did not live together like man and wife, in the common pos¬ session of their estates, under the husband’s direc¬ tion, but like two monarchs in close alliance. They neither loved nor hated each other, were seldom in company together, had each a separate council, and were frequently jealous of each other in the admin¬ istration : the queen found a still greater subject of jealousy in the infidelity of her husband, who filled

176 Ancient and Modern History.

all the great posts in the state with his bastards : but they were inseparably united in their common interests, always acting upon the same principles, always having the words “ religion ” and “ piety ” in their mouths, and wholly taken up with their ambi¬ tious views. In short, the rightful heiress, Joan, was unable to withstand their united forces ; at' length her uncle, Don Alphonso, king of Portugal, who was desirous of espousing her, took up arms in her favor. But the conclusion of all these efforts and troubles was that this unfortunate princess ended in a convent that life which was destined for a throne.

Never was injustice better colored, more success¬ ful, or justified by a more daring and prudent con¬ duct. Isabella and Ferdinand established such a power in Spain as had never been known since the restoration of the Christians. The Moors were now in possession only of Granada, and drew near their luin in that part of Europe, while the Turks seemed on the point of subduing the other. The Christians had lost Spain in the beginning of the eighth cen¬ tury by tneir mutual discords and divisions ; the same cause drove the Moors at length out of Spain.

Boabdil, nephew of Abdallah, king of Granada, bi rebellion against him. Ferdinand the Catholic took every opportunity of fomenting this civil war, and of supporting the nephew against the uncle, by this means to weaken both the one and the other. Soon after the death of Abdallah, he fell

X11

Spain.

upon his ally, Boabdil, with the united forces of Aragon and Castile. It cost him six years to con¬ quer this Mahometan kingdom. At length he came and laid siege to the city of Granada, which held out against him for eight months. Queen Isabella came thither in person to share in her husband’s triumph. Boabdil surrendered on conditions which showed that he was yet able to defend his capital: for it was stipulated that nothing should be attempted against the estates, lands, liberties, or religion of the Moors ; that the prisoners taken from them should be restored without ransom ; and that the Jews, who were comprehended in the same treaty, should enjoy the same privileges.

1491 — Boabdil then came out of the city, and went to present the keys to Ferdinand and Isabella, who treated him like a king, for the last time.

Contemporary writers who have related this event, tell us that the Moorish king shed tears when he looked back at the walls of that city, which had been built by the Mahometans nearly five hundred years before, was full of inhabitants and riches, adorned with that stupendous palace of the Moorish kings, in which were the finest baths in Europe, and a num¬ ber of magnificent and spacious apartments, sup¬ ported by a hundred pillars of alabaster. Perhaps the very luxury, the loss of which he so much regretted, had been the instrument of his ruin. He retired to Africa, and there ended his days.

In Europe Ferdinand was considered as the Vol. 26 — 12

178 Ancient and Modern History.

avenger of the Christian religion, and the restorer of his country. From that time he was called king of Spain : and in fact, being master of Castile by right of marriage, of Granada by conquest, and of Aragon by birth, he wanted only Navarre, which he got possession of in the end. He had several warm disputes with France about Cerdagne and Roussil¬ lon, which had been pledged to Louis XI. It may be judged whether, as king of Sicily, he could without jealousy behold Charles VIII. preparing to pass into Italy, in order to dispossess one of the house of Ara¬ gon, then settled on the throne of Naples.

We shall soon see in what manner the conse¬ quences of so natural a jealousy broke forth; but, previous to entering into the quarrels of princes, you always desire to observe the fate of the people. You see that Ferdinand and Isabella did not find the kingdom of Spain in the condition in which it was later under Charles V. and Philip II. The mixture of ancient Visigoths, Vandals, Africans, Jews, and aborigines had for a long time laid waste the land of which they disputed the possession, and it did not grow fruitful till it came into the hands of the Mahometans. The Moors, after they were con¬ quered, became farmers to their conquerors, and the Christians of Spain were wholly maintained by the labors of their ancient enemies. They had no man¬ ufactures of their own, and as little trade; they were hardly acquainted with the common necessaries of life: they had little or no furniture in their

Spain. i *jg

houses, no inns on their roads, no conveniences for lodging strangers in their towns ; and the use of fine linen was for a long time unknown to them, and even that of the coarse kind was very scarce. All their trade, both foreign and domestic, was carried on by the Jews, who had become absolutely nec¬ essary in a nation which knew only the use of arms.

T492 W hen, toward the end of the fifteenth century, they began in Spain to inquire into the causes of the wretchedness of the country, it was found that the Jews had accumulated to themselves either by trade or usury all the money in the nation ; and upon a computation there appeared to be no less than one hundred and fifty thousand of this foreign nation amongst them, who were at once so odious and so necessary to the Spaniards. A number of the grandees, who had nothing left but their titles, had married into Jewish families, as the only means of repairing the losses they had sustained by their prod- igality ; and they made the less scruple of such an alliance, as it had for a long time been customary for the Christians to intermarry with the Moors. It was therefore debated in the king and queen’s coun¬ cil, by what means the nation might be delivered from this underhand tyranny of the Jews, after hav¬ ing shaken off that of the Mahometans. At length they came to a resolution, in the year 1492, to drive all the Jews out of the kingdom, and share their spoils. Accordingly they were allowed only six months to dispose of their effects, which they were

180 Ancient and Modem History.

consequently obliged to part with at a very low price. They were furthermore forbidden, on pain of death, to carry with them either gold, silver, or jewels. In consequence of this ordinance, no less than thirty thousand Jewish families left the kingdom of Spain, which, at a computation of five persons in each fam¬ ily, amounts to one hundred and fifty thousand souls. Part retired into Africa, and part into Portugal and France, and several returned, under pretence of embracing the Christian religion. They had been expelled from the kingdom for the sake of getting possession of their riches, and they were received again for the sake of those they brought back with them ; and it was principally on their account that the tribunal of the Inquisition was set up, that upon the least attempt to exercise any act of their own religion, they might be proceeded against juridically, and their possessions forfeited. No such treatment is offered in India to the Banians, who are exactly in that country what the Jews are in Europe, a people separated from all the other nations by a relig¬ ion as ancient as the annals of the world, but united with them by the necessity of commerce, of which they are the factors, and by which they acquire as great riches as the Jews do amongst us. These Banians are not hated, either by Mahom¬ etans, Christians, or Pagans ; whereas the Jews are held in execration by all nations amongst whom they are admitted. Some Spanish writers pretend that this nation had grown formidable : they were

1 8 1

Spain.

certainly hurtful to the Spaniards by the immense profits they made of them, but they were not a war¬ like people, and therefore there was nothing to fear from them. The Spaniards feigned to be alarmed at what was only a piece of vanity in the Jews, namely, their having endeavored long before the Christians to form a settlement on the southern coasts of the king¬ dom. It is certain that they had from time imme¬ morial flocked in great numbers into the province of Andalusia : now they had attempted to cloak this fact under a thousand idle and fabulous notions, which have always prevailed among these people, the more sensible part of whom always confine them¬ selves to business, and leave rabbinism to those who have nothing better to do. The Spanish rabbins had written a great deal to prove that a colony of Jews flourished in these parts in the time of King Solomon, and that the inhabitants of ancient Boeotia paid a tribute to him : they endeavored to support this assertion by a number of false medals and inscriptions. This piece of deceit, with others of a more essential kind of which they were accused, con¬ tributed not a little to their disgrace.

From this time began in Spain and Portugal the distinction between old and new Christians, or those families which had intermarried with Jews, and those which had made alliances with Moors.

Nevertheless the temporary profit which accrued to the state from the violence offered to the Jews soon deprived it of the certain revenues which these

1 82 Ancient and Modern History.

people used to pay into the royal treasury. This deficiency continued to be severely felt till the Span¬ iards made themselves masters of the riches of the new world. However, they provided against this inconvenience as much as they could by the help of bulls: that granted by Pope Julius II., in 1509, called the Cruzado, brought more money into the government than all the taxes it had laid upon the Jews. Every private person was obliged to purchase one of these bulls, for the permission to eat meat in Lent, and on Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the year. No one who went to confession could receive absolution without first showing this bull to the priest. They afterward fell upon the invention of the bull of composition, by virtue of which a person was allowed to keep anything he had stolen, provided he did not know the owner. Such super¬ stitious practices are certainly as bad as anything with which they reproached the Hebrews. Folly, infatuation, and vice are in every country a part of the public revenue.

The form of absolution given to those who pur¬ chased this bull is not unworthy a place in this gen- ei al picture of the customs and manners of man¬ kind. <( By the authority of Almighty God, of St.

I etei and St. Paul, and of our most holy father, the pope, to me committed, I grant you the remission of all your sins, confessed, forgotten, and unknown; and from the pains of purgatory.”

I he Mahometans underwent the same treatment

!

Spain. 1 83

from Isabella, or rather from her minister, Cardinal Ximenes, as the Jews had done; great numbers of them were forced to become Christians, notwith¬ standing the articles of capitulation at Granada, and were sent to the stake if they turned again to their own religion. This drove as many Moors out of the kingdom as it had done Jews ; nor do we lament the fate of either the Arabs or the Hebrews, the one having so long held Spain in subjection, and the other having for a still longer time continued to plunder it.

About this time the Portuguese first emerged from their obscurity ; and, notwithstanding the ignorance of those ages, began to merit a glory as lasting as the universe, by the great change they wrought in the commerce of the world, which was the fruit of their discoveries. The Portuguese were the first of all the modern nations who navigated on the Atlantic Ocean, and are indebted only to themselves for the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, whereas the Spaniards owe the discovery of America to foreigners. But it is to one man only, namely, the infant Don Henry, that the Portuguese are indebted for that great undertaking, against which they at first so loudly murmured. Whatever has been done either great or noble in the world has been brought about wholly by the genius and cour¬ age of a single man, who has dared to oppose the prejudices of the multitude.

Portugal was employed in its great navigations

184 Ancient and Modern History.

and successes in Africa, and took no part in the events of Italy, which alarmed the rest of Europe.

ITALY.

I shall now set before you the powers, the inter¬ ests, and the manners of the several nations, from the mountains of Dauphiny to the extremity of Italy.

The dominions of Savoy, which were not then so extensive as they are at present, as containing neither Montferrat nor Saluca, and being destitute both of money and commerce, were not looked upon as a barrier. Its sovereigns were attached to the house of France, which had lately, during their minority, dis¬ posed of the government ; and the passage of the Alps was left open.

From Piedmont we descend into the territories of Milan, the most fertile country of Upper Italy. This, as well as Savoy, was an imperial principality, but powerful and altogether independent of a feeble empire. This state, after having belonged to the Visconti, passed into the hands of a peasant’s bas¬ tard, a great man himself, and the son of a great man. This peasant was Francis Sforza, who by his own merit rose to be constable of Naples, and one of the most powerful noblemen in Italy. His bastard son of one of the condottieri, and chief of these dis¬ ciplined banditti, who sold their service to the popes, the Venetians, and the Neapolitans. He made him¬ self master of Naples in the middle of the fifteenth

Italy.

185

century, and some time afterward of Genoa, which had formerly been so flourishing a republic, and which, after having sustained nine successive wars with Venice, was now fluctuating from one state of slavery to another. It had offered itself to the French in the reign of Charles VI., and had afterward revolted : it then acknowledged the authority of Charles VII., in 1458, and again shook off his yoke. It would next have submitted to Louis XI. but that monarch returned for answer that it might give itself to the devil, for he would have nothing to do with it. After all, in 1464, it was obliged to submit to Francis Sforza, duke of Milan.

1476 — Galeazzo Sforza, the son of this bastard, was assassinated in the cathedral church of Milan on St. Stephen’s day. I mention this circumstance, which otherwise would be frivolous, because here it is of importance; for the assassins loudly invoked St. Stephen and St. Ambrose to inspire them with sufficient courage to murder their prince. Poison¬ ings, assassinations, and superstition were the dis¬ tinguishing characteristics of the Italians in those days, who, though well versed in the arts of revenge, knew not how to fight, consequently the number of poisoners far exceeded that of good soldiers. The son of this unfortunate Galeazzo Sforza, while yet an infant, succeeded him in the duchy of Milan, under the guardianship of his mother, and Chancellor Sim- onetta. But his uncle, Ludovico Sforza, or Louis the Moor, drove the mother out of the kingdom, put

1 86 Ancient and Modern History.

the chancellor to death, and soon after poisoned his nephew.

It was this Louis the Moor who entered into a treaty with Charles VIII. to favor the descent of the French in Italy.

Tuscany, a country less beholden to the gifts of nature, was to Milan what the ancient Attica was to Boeotia; for within the last century Florence had signalized itself, as we have already seen, by its attention to commerce and the liberal arts. The fam¬ ily of Medici was at the head of this polite nation, than whom no house ever acquired supreme power by a more just title. It obtained it by mere dint of beneficence and virtue. Cosmo de Medici, born in 1389, was a private citizen of Florence, who lived without seeking for titles; but acquired by com¬ merce a fortune equal to the greatest monarchs of his time. He employed his great wealth in relieving the poor, in making himself friends among the rich by lending money to them, in adorning his country with superb edifices, and in inviting to Florence the men of learning among the Greeks who were driven from Constantinople. His advice was for the space of thirty years the law of the republic. His only arts were his good deeds, which are of all others the most just. After his death his papers showed that he had lent immense sums to his countrymen, of which he had never demanded the least payment, and he died, in 1464, universally regretted by his very enemies. The people of Florence with one consent adorned

i«7

Italy.

his tomb with the glorious epitaph of father of his country, a title which not one of the many kings we have seen pass in review were ever able to obtain.

His reputation procured his descendants the chief authority in Tuscany. His son took the administra¬ tion under the name of Gonfalonier. His two grand¬ sons, Lorenzo and Julian, who were masters of the republic, were set upon in the church by a band of conspirators at the time of the elevation of the host. Julian died, in 1478, of the wounds he received, but Lorenzo made his escape. Florence resembled Athens, both in government and genius. It was at one time aristocratic, and at another pop¬ ular, and dreaded nothing so much as tyranny.

Cosmo de Medici might be compared to Pisistra- tus, who, notwithstanding his great power, was ranked in the number of sages. The sons of this Cosmo resembled those of Pisistratus, who were as¬ sassinated by Harmodius and Aristogiton. Lorenzo escaped from his murderers, and so did one of the sons of Pisistratus, and both of them lived to avenge the death of his brother : but that happened in Flor¬ ence which did not at Athens ; the chiefs of religion were concerned in this bloody conspiracy. Pope Sixtus V. planned it, and the archbishop of Pisa set it on foot.

The people of Florence avenged this cruel act on those who were found guilty; and the archbishop himself was hanged at one of the windows of the public palace. Lorenzo, thus avenged by his fellow

1 88 Ancient and Modern History.

citizens, made himself beloved by them during the rest of his life. He was surnamed the father of the muses, a title not equal indeed to that of father of his country, but which showed that he was so in fact. It was a thing no less admirable than foreign to our manners to see this citizen, who always addicted himself to commerce, selling with one hand the prod¬ uce of the Levant, and with the other supporting the weight of the republic ; entertaining factors and ambassadors ; opposing an artful and powerful pope, making peace and war, standing forth the oracle of princes, and the cultivator of the belles-lettres, fur¬ nishing amusements for the people, and giving a reception to the learned Greeks of Constantinople. His son Peter held the supreme authority in Flor¬ ence, at the time that the French made their expedi¬ tion to Naples ; but with much less credit than either his predecessors or descendants.

PAPAL STATE.

The papal state was not then what it now is ; nor yet what it would have been had the popes been in a condition to profit by the donations which it was thought Charlemagne had left them, and those which they were really entitled to by the gift of Countess Mathilda. 1 he house of Gonzaga was in possession of Mantua, for which it did homage to the empire. Several lords, under the titles of vicars of the empire, or of the Church, were in peaceable frui¬ tion of those fine territories which now belong to the

Papal State. 189

\

popes. Perugia belonged to the family of the Bail- loni ; the Bentivoglios had Bologna ; the Polentas Ravenna; the Manfredi Faenza; the Sforzas Pesaro; the Rimerios were in possession of Imola and Forli ; the house of Este had for a long time governed in Ferrara; the Picos in Mirandola, and the Roman barons had great power in Rome ; whence they were called the pope’s hand-cuffs. The families of Colonna and Orsini, the Conti, and the Savilli, who were the principal barons, and ancient possessors of the most considerable demesnes, divided the Roman state by their continual disputes, like the great lords of France and Germany, who waged war with each other at the time that those kingdoms were in their feeble state. The people of Rome, who were very fond of processions, and forever crying out for ple¬ nary indulgences from their popes, frequently muti¬ nied upon their deaths, rifled their palaces, and were ready to throw their bodies into the Tiber, as was particularly the case on the death of Pope Innocent VIII.

After his decease, Rodrigo Borgia, a Spaniard, was chosen pope, and took the name of Alexander VI., a man whose memory has been made execrable by the cries of all Europe, and the pen of every his¬ torian. The Protestants, who in the next age sep¬ arated themselves from the Church of Rome, added still more to the measure of this pontiff’s iniquities. We shall see presently whether more crimes were laid to his charge than he deserved. The exaltation

190 Ancient and Modern History.

of this man to the papal chair sufficiently shows the manners and spirit of his age, so different from those of the present. The cardinals who elected him must have known that he at that time openly brought up five children which he had by Vanozza. They must necessarily have foreseen that all posses¬ sions, honors, and authority would be in the hands of his family, and yet they chose him for their master. The chiefs of the faction in the conclave sold for a trifling sum, not only their own interest, but those of all Italy.

VENICE.

Venice extended its dominions on the mainland from the Lake of Como to the middle of Dalmatia. The Turks had despoiled it of all which it had for¬ merly taken in Greece from the Christian emperors ; but it still retained the large island of Candia, and afterward acquired that of Cyprus in 1437, by the donation of its last queen, daughter of Marco Cor- naro, the Venetian. But the industry of its inhab¬ itants was of greater value than those two islands, or the whole of its demesnes on the continent. The wealth of other nations rolled in on it, through all the various channels of commerce ; all the princes of Italy stood in awe of this republic, and she herself was in dread of an invasion from France.

Of all the governments in Europe, that of Venice was alone regular, stable, and uniform. It had but one essential fault, which indeed was not thought such by the senate ; which was, that it wanted a coun-

Naples. 191

terpoise to the power of the patricians, and proper encouragement for the common people. No private citizen of Venice could hope to rise by his merit, as in ancient Rome. The chief excellence of the Eng¬ lish government, since the House of Commons has had a share in the legislature, consists in this coun¬ terpoise, and in leaving the way to honors and dig¬ nities open to all such who are deserving of them.

NAPLES.

As to the Neapolitans, they were always a weak and fickle people, alike incapable of governing them¬ selves, of choosing a king, or being contented with him they had ; and always at the mercy of the first power who chose to invade them with an army.

Old King Fernando reigned at that time in Naples. He was a bastard of the house of Aragon. Illegiti¬ macy at that time was no bar to the throne. A bas¬ tard race wore the crown of Castile ; and a bastard, descendant of Don Pedro the Severe, governed Por¬ tugal. Fernando therefore reigned by this title in Naples ; he had received the investiture of that king¬ dom from the pope, in prejudice to the heirs of the house of Anjou, who still asserted their rights. But he was neither 'beloved by the pope, his lord para¬ mount, nor by his own subjects, and died in I434> leaving behind him an unfortunate family, whom Charles VIII. deprived of a throne which he could not keep ; and whom he afterward, to his own mis¬ fortune, continued to persecute.

Ip2

Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER LXXXVI.

THE CONQUEST OF NAPLES - ZIZIM , BROTHER TO BAJ-

AZET II. - POPE ALEXANDER VI., ETC.

Charles VIII., his council, and his young courtiers were so intoxicated with the project of conquering the kingdom of Naples that they restored to Maxi¬ milian, Artois and Franche-Comte, which had been taken from his wife ; and returned Cerdagne and Roussillon to Ferdinand the Catholic, with the remission of three hundred thousand crowns, which he owed, on condition that he should not interrupt the progress of the war. In this they never reflected that twelve villages added to a state are of greater value than a kingdom situated four hundred leagues from it. They committed another error in trusting to the Catholic king.

1494 — At length Charles VIII. entered Italy : he undertook this expedition with only sixteen hundred men at arms, who with their archers, made a squad¬ ron of five thousand horsemen, heavily armed ; two hundred gentlemen of his guard, five hundred light horse, six thousand French foot, and the same num¬ ber of Swiss ; and so badly provided with money that he was obliged to borrow on his march, and even to pledge the jewels which had been lent him by the duchess of Savoy. Nevertheless, this army produced consternation and submission wherever it came. 1 he Italians were amazed to see such heavy

The Conquest of Naples. 193

artillery drawn by horses, they having only been accustomed to small brass culverins drawn by oxen. The Italian gendarmerie was composed of spadassins or bravos, who hired themselves at an extravagant price to the condottieri, who sold their services at a still more exorbitant rate to those princes who stood in need of their dangerous assistance. These chiefs took such names as were most likely to strike terror into the ignorant people, such as " taille-cuisse ” “ fier-a-bras,” “ f racasse” or “sacripend”; i. e. “ Slash-thigh,” “Arm-strong,” “ Havoc,” etc. They were all afraid of losing their men, therefore only pursued the enemy, and never came to blows : those who kept the field were the conquerors. Indeed, in these time there was much more blood shed in pri¬ vate revenge, among citizens, and in conspiracies, than in battle. Machiavelli tells us, that in one of the battles fought at this time there was only one horse¬ man killed, and he was trampled to death by the crowd.

The prospect of a serious war, therefore, filled them with dread, and not one dared to appear. Pope Alexander VI., the Venetians, and Louis the Moor, duke of Milan, who had invited Charles into Italy, endeavored to throw obstacles in his way as soon as he entered it. Peter de Medici, who was obliged to ask his protection, was for so doing expelled from the republic, and retired to Venice, whence he never dared to venture forth, though assured of the

king’s protection ; which he did not think sufficient Vol. 26 — 13

194 Ancient and Modern History.

to secure him against the private vengeance of his countrymen.

The king entered the city of Florence as its lord, and delivered Sienna from the Tuscan yoke, to which it was soon afterward again obliged to sub¬ mit. He then marched to Rome, where Alexander VI. in vain intrigued against him, and he entered that city as a conqueror. The pope had taken refuge in the castle of St. Angelo ; but as soon as he saw the French cannon pointed against those feeble ram¬ parts he capitulated.

1494 — It cost him only a cardinal’s hat to make his peace with the king. The president, Brissonet, who from a lawyer had become an archbishop, per¬ suaded the king to this agreement, by which he gained the purple. A king is often well served by his subjects who are cardinals, but seldom by those who are in pursuit of that dignity. The king's confessor was also in the secret. Charles, whose interest it was to have deposed the pope, forgave him, and repented of it afterward ; and certainly never pontiff more deserved the indignation of a Christian prince. He and the Venetians had applied to the Turkish sultan, Bajazet II., son and successor to Mahomet II., to assist them in driving Charles VIII. out of Italy. It was even asserted that this pope had sent Bozzo in quality of nuncio to the Ottoman Porte, and that this alliance between the pope and the sultan was purchased by one of those inhuman murders which

The Conquest of Naples. 195

are not committed without horror even in the se¬ raglio of Constantinople.

The pontiff, by an extraordinary chain of events, had at that time in his possession the person of Zizim, or Jem, the brother of Bajazet. The manner in which this son of Mahomet II. fell into the hands of the pope is as follows :

Zizim, who was adored by the Turks, had dis¬ puted the empire with Bajazet, who was as much hated by them : but notwithstanding the young prince had the prayers of the people for him, he was defeated. In this disgrace he had recourse by an ambassador to the Knights of Rhodes, now the Knights of Malta. He was at first received by them as a prince to whom they stood bound in the laws of hospitality, and who might one day be of service to them; but soon afterward they treated him as their prisoner. Bajazet paid these knights forty thousand sequins a year not to suffer Zizim to return again to Turkey. The knights conveyed him to one of their commanderies at Poitou, in France, called le Bourneuf. Charles VIII. had received at one time an ambassador from Bajazet, and a nuncio from Pope Innocent VIII., Alexander’s predecessor, relat¬ ing to this valuable captive. The sultan claimed him as his subject, and the pope wanted to have posses¬ sion of his person as a pledge of safety for Italy against the attempts of the Turks. In the end, Charles sent Zizim to the pope. The pontiff received him with all the splendor and magnificence which

196 Ancient and Modern History.

the sovereign of Rome could show to the brother of the sovereign of Constantinople. They would have obliged Zizim to kiss the pope’s feet; but Bozzo, who was an eye-witness of the whole, assures us that the Turk rejected this mark of submission with indignation. Paul Giovio says that Alexander VI. sold Zizim’s life in a treaty he made with Baja- zet. The king of France, full of his vast projects, and certain of the conquest of Naples, wanted to become formidable to Bajazet, by having the person of this unhappy brother in his power. The pope, according to Paul Giovio, delivered him to Charles, after poisoning him. It is not clearly shown whether this poison was given him by one of the pope’s domestics, or by a secret emissary of the Grand Seignior. It was however publicly declared that Bajazet had promised the pope three hundred thou¬ sand ducats for his brother’s head.

Prince Demetrius Cantemir says that, according to all the Turkish annals, Zizim was murdered by his barber, who cut his throat, and that, in recom¬ pense, Bajazet afterward made this barber his grand vizier. It is hardly probable that they would have made a barber general and prime minister. If Zizim had been murdered after this manner, Charles VIII., who sent his body to his brother, must certainly have discovered the nature of his death : and the writers of those times would have made mention of it : therefore Prince Cantemir and the accusers of Alexander VI. may be equally deceived. The pub-

T97

The Conquest of Naples.

lie, through hatred to this pontiff, imputed to him all the crimes that it was possible for him to commit.

The pope having taken an oath not to disturb the king in his conquests, was set at liberty and appeared again as pontiff on the Vatican theatre. There, in a public consistory, the king appeared to pay him what is called the homage of obedience, assisted by John de Gannai, first president of the Parliament of Paris, who certainly ought to have been elsewhere than at such a ceremony. The king then kissed the feet of the person whom two days before he would have condemned as a criminal; and, to complete the scene, he served the pope at high mass. Guicciardini, a contemporary writer of great credit, assures us that in the church the king sat below the cardinal dean. We must not, therefore, be surprised that Cardinal de Bouillon, dean of the sacred college, has in our time, upon the authority of these ancient cus¬ toms, expressed himself thus, in a letter to Louis XIV. : “I am going to take possession of the first seat in the Christian world, next to the supreme.’

Charlemagne had caused himself to be declared in Rome, emperor of the West. Charles VIII. was in the same city declared emperor of the East, but after a very different manner. One Palaeologus, nephew to him who had lost the empire and his life, made an empty cession in favor of Charles VIII., and his successors, of an empire which could no longer be recovered.

As he was on the march back, he fell in with the

198 Ancient and Modern History.

confederate army, of thirty thousand men, near the village of Fornovo in Placentia, rendered famous by that day’s action. He had not more than eight thousand men with him. If he was beaten, he lost his liberty or his life; if he conquered, he only gained the advantage of a retreat. He now gave a proof of what he might have done in this expedi¬ tion, had his prudence been equal to his courage. The Italians soon fled before him. In this engage¬ ment he did not lose above two hundred men, while the loss of the allies amounted to above four thou¬ sand. Such is usually the advantage which a dis¬ ciplined army, though small in number, headed by their king, has over a raw and mercenary multitude. The Venetians reckoned as a victory the having plundered a part of the king’s baggage ; and car¬ ried his tent in triumph into their own country. Charles VIII. conquered only to secure his return to his kingdom; and left one-half of his little army at Novara, in the duchy of Milan, where the duke of Orleans was quickly besieged.

The confederates might have attacked him a sec¬ ond time with great advantage ; but they did not dare. “ There is no withstanding,” said they, " la furia francese The French did in Italy exactly that which the English had done in France. They conquered with inferiority of numbers, and they lost their conquests.

While the king was at Turin, everyone was sur¬ prised to hear the chamberlain of Pope Alexander

The Conquest of Naples. 199

VI. order the king of France, in his master’s name, instantly to withdraw his troops from the terri¬ tories of Milan and Naples, and repair to Rome to give an account of his conduct to the holy father, under pain of excommunication. This bravado would have been a subject of laughter, had not this pontiff’s conduct in other respects furnished too seri¬ ous matter for complaint.

The king at length returned to France, where he showed as much remissness in preserving his con¬ quests as he had displayed eagerness in making them. Frederick, the uncle of Fernando, the dethroned king of Naples, who became titular king after the death of his nephew, recovered the whole of his kingdom in less than a month’s time, by the help of Gonsalvo of Cordova, called the Great Captain, whom Ferdinand the Catholic had sent at that time to his assistance.

The duke of Orleans, who soon after succeeded to the crown of France, was glad to be suffered to depart quietly from Novara. At length there remained not the least trace of this torrent which had overspread Italy; and Charles VIII., whose glory had been so transient, died in 1497, without issue, at the age of twenty-eight ; leaving his successor, Louis XII., to follow his example, and to repair his

errors.

200 Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

SAVONAROLA.

Before we proceed to examine how Louis XII. maintained his rights in Italy, what became of that fine country rent by so many factions, and disputed by so many powers, and in what manner the popes formed that extensive state of which they are at pres¬ ent in possession, we owe some attention to an extraordinary fact which at that time exercised the credulity of all Europe, and displayed the full power of fanaticism.

There was at Florence a Dominican, named Girol¬ amo Savonarola, who was one of those church ora¬ tors who think that a talent for speaking in the pulpit qualifies them for governing the nation, and one of those divines who, because they can explain the Apocalypse, think they are prophets. He di¬ rected, he preached, he heard confessions, he wrote ; and living in a free city, which was consequently filled with factions, he aimed at becoming the head of the people.

As soon as it was known to the principal citizens of Florence that Charles VIII. meditated a descent upon Italy, this man took upon himself to foretell it ; and the people therefore believed him inspired. He inveighed against Pope Alexander VI. ; he encour¬ aged such of his countrymen as persecuted the family of Medici, and bathed their hands in the blood of the

Savonarola.

■201

friends to that house. No man had ever been in greater degree of credit with the common people of Florence. He had become a kind of tribune among them, by having procured the artificers admission into the magistracy. The pope and the Medici fam¬ ily fought Savonarola with his own weapons, and sent a Franciscan to preach against him. There subsisted a more mortal hatred between the two orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, than between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. The Cordelier suc¬ ceeded so well that he rendered his antagonist, the Dominican, odious. The two orders now let loose all the fury of invective against each other. At last a Dominican friar offered to undergo the trial of fire in vindication of Savonarola’s sanctity. This was answered by a Franciscan friar, who offered to undergo the same trial to prove Savonarola an im¬ postor and a profligate wretch. The people, eager for this spectacle, cried aloud for its being put into execution, and the magistracy was obliged to give orders for it. Everyone had at that time fresh in mind the old fabulous story of the monk Aldobran- dini, surnamed Petrus igneus , or Peter the Fiery, who, in the eleventh century, passed through two flaming piles of wood ; and the partisans of Savon¬ arola had not the least doubt that God would do as much for a Jacobin friar as he had heretofore done for a Benedictine. The contrary faction entertained like hopes in behalf of the Cordelier.

At length the fires were lighted, and the two

202

Ancient and Modern History.

champions appeared in the midst of an innumerable crowd of spectators. But when they came to take a cool view of the two piles in flames, they both began to tremble, and their fears suggested to them a common evasion. The Dominican would not enter the pile without the host in his hand, and the Corde¬ lier pretended that this was no article of the agree¬ ment. Both were obstinate, and mutually assisted each other in getting over this false step. In short, they did not exhibit the shocking farce they had pro¬ posed.

The people upon this, stirred up by the Franciscan party, would have seized upon Savonarola ; and the magistracy ordered him to quit the city : but although he had the pope, the Medici family, and the people all against him he refused to obey, upon which he was seized and put to the torture seven times. By the extract of his confession we learn that he acknowledged himself to be a false prophet and an impostor, who abused the secrets of confession, and those which were revealed to him by the society. Could he do otherwise than own himself an impos¬ tor? Is not everyone who enters into cabals under pretence of being inspired an impostor? Perhaps he was moreover a fanatic. The human imagination is capable of uniting these two extremes, which appear so contradictory. If he had been condemned only through a motive of justice, a prison and severe penance had been sufficient punishments; but the spirit of party had a share in his sufferings. In

Pico de la Mirandola. 203

short, he was sentenced, with two other Dominicans, to suffer in those flames which they had offered to encounter. However, they were strangled before they were thrown into the fire. Savonarola’s party did not fail to attribute a number of miracles to him after his death, the last shift of those who have been attached to an unfortunate chief. We must not for¬ get that Alexander VI., after he was condemned, sent him a plenary indulgence.

CHAPTER LXXXVIII.

PICO DE LA MIRANDOLA.

As the adventure of Savonarola shows to what a height superstition was still carried, the disputations of the young prince of Mirandola may convince us of the flourishing state of the sciences in those times. These two different scenes passed at Florence and Rome among people then accounted the most ingen¬ ious in the world. Hence we may readily infer what darkness hung over the other nations of the earth, and how slow human reason is in its formation

It will always be a proof of the superiority of the Italians in those times, that John Francis Pico de la Mirandola, a sovereign prince, was from his earliest years a prodigy of learning and memory. Had he even lived in our days he would have been esteemed a miracle of real erudition. He had so strong a passion for the sciences that at length he renounced his principality and retired to Florence, where he

204 Ancient and Modern History.

died in the year 1494, on the very day that Charles VIII. made his entry into that city. It is said, that at the age of eighteen he understood twenty-two different languages. This is certainly out of the ordinary course of nature. There is hardly any language which does not require over a year to learn it perfectly : therefore a young person, who, at so early an age as eighteen, knows twenty-two, must be suspected of understanding them very imper¬ fectly, or of knowing only the elements at most, which is in fact knowing nothing at all.

It is still more extraordinary that this prince hav¬ ing studied so many languages should, at the age of twenty-four, be able to maintain theses at Rome on all the sciences without excepting one. In the front of his works we meet with one thousand four hun¬ dred general conclusions, on every one of which he offered to dispute. Now in all this immense study and learning, a few elements of geometry and the doctrine of the sphere are the only things which appear worthy of his great pains and application. All the rest only serve to show the genius of the times. We meet with the summum of St. Thomas, an abridgment of the works of Albert, surnamed the Great, and a mixture of divinity and peripateticism. Here we read that the angels are infinite secundum quid; and that animals and plants are formed by a corruption animated by a productive virtue. The whole is in this taste, and indeed it is all that was taught in the universities of those times. Thou-

Pico de la Mirandola.

205

sands of pupils had their heads filled with these chimeras, and continued to frequent, for forty or fifty years, the schools where they were taught. The knowledge of all other nations was as trifling. Those who held the reins of government in the world were therefore very excusable in being ignorant of them, and Pico of Mirandola very unhappy in having spent his life, and shortened his days in the pursuit of these grave fopperies.

The number of those who, born with a real genius, cultivated by reading the best Roman authors, had escaped this general night of learning, were very inconsiderable after Dante and Petrarch, whose works were better adapted for princes, statesmen, women, and men of fortune, who only seek for an agreeable amusement in reading; and these would have been more proper for the prince of Mirandola than the compilations of Albert the Great.

But he was carried away by a passion for universal knowledge ; and this universal knowledge consisted in knowing by heart a few words upon every sub¬ ject, which conveyed no kind of idea. It is diffi¬ cult to comprehend how the same man who reasoned so justly and with so much nicety upon the affairs of the world and their several interests could be satisfied with such unintelligible jargon in almost evervthing else. The reason perhaps is, that man¬ kind is fonder of appearing to know something, than of seeking after knowledge; and when error has gained the mastery of our minds during our tender

106 Ancient and Modern History.

age we are at no pains to shake off its yoke, but rather strive to subject ourselves more to it. Hence it comes that so many men of real discernment and genius are so frequently under the dominion of pop¬ ular errors.

Pico de la Mirandola wrote, indeed, against judi¬ cial astrology; but then, let us not mistake, it was only against the astrology practised in his time. He allowed of another kind, which, according to him, was the most ancient and true, and which he said had been neglected.

In his first proposition he expresses himself thus : “ Magic, such as is now practised, and which is condemned by the Church, cannot be founded on truth, because it depends on those powers which are enemies to truth.” Now by these very words, contradictory as they are, it is evident that he admit¬ ted magic to be the work of devils, which was the generally received opinion concerning it. Accord¬ ingly he affirms that there is no virtue in Heaven or on earth but what a magician can make subservient to his purposes : and he proves that words are of efficacy in magic, because God made use of speech in arranging the several parts of the universe.

These theses made more noise, and were in greater reputation at those times than the discoveries of Newton or the investigations of the great Locke in our days. Pope Innocent VIII. caused thirteen propositions of this great body of doctrine to be cen¬ sured ; a censure which resembled the decisions of

207

Pope Alexander VI.

those Indians who condemned the opinion of the earth’s being supported by a dragon, because, accord¬ ing to them, none but an elephant was able to support it. Pico de la Mirandola drew up an apology for his propositions, in which he complains of those who had censured him, and says, that being in company with one of them who were inveighing bitterly against the cabala, he asked him if he knew what was really meant by the word “ cabala. A pretty question truly ! answered the schoolman ; does not everybody know that he was a heretic, who wrote against Jesus Christ?

At length it became necessary for Pope Alexander VI., who at least had the merit of despising these frivolous disputes, to send him his absolution. It is remarkable that he acted in the same manner by Pico de la Mirandola and Savonarola.

CHAPTER LXXXIX.

POPE ALEXANDER VI. AND LOUIS XII. OF FRANCE.

Pope Alexander VI. was at that time engaged in two great designs, one was to restore to the pontifical demesnes the many territories which it was pre¬ tended they had been deprived of, and the other to procure a crown for his son, Caesar Borgia. Infa¬ mous as his conduct was, it did not m the least impair his authority, and the people of Rome raised no seditions against him. He was publicly accused cf 31 criminal correspondence with his own sister,

ao8 Ancient and Modern History.

Lucretia, whom he took away from three husbands, successively, the last of whom, Alphonso of Aragon, he caused to be assassinated, that he might bestow her in marriage on the heir of the house of Este. These nuptials were celebrated in the Vatican by the most infamous diversions that debauch had ever invented for the confusion of modesty. Fifty cour¬ tesans danced naked before this incestuous family, and prizes were given to those who exhibited the most lascivious motions. The duke of Gandia and Caesar Borgia, at that time archbishop of Valencia in Spain, and cardinal, were said to have publicly disputed the favors of their sister, Lucretia. The duke of Gandia was assassinated in Rome, and Caesar Borgia was suspected as the author of his death. The personal estates of the cardinals belong at their decease to the pope, and Alexander was strongly suspected of having hastened the death of more than one member of the sacred college, that he might become their heir; notwithstanding all which the people of Rome obeyed without murmuring, and this pontiff’s friendship was sought by all the potentates of Europe.

Louis XII., king of France, who succeeded Charles VIII., was more earnest than any other in seeking an alliance with Alexander : he had more reasons than one for this ; he wanted to be divorced from his wife, the daughter of Louis XI., with whom he had consummated his marriage, and lived in wed¬ lock for over twenty-two years, but without having

209

Pope Alexander VI.

had any children. No law, excepting the law of nature, could authorize such a separation ; and yet disgust and policy made it necessary.

Anne of Brittany, the widow of Charles VIII., still retained that inclination for Louis XII. which she had felt for him when duke of Orleans ; and unless he married her, Brittany would be forever tost to the crown of France. It was an ancient but dangerous custom to apply to the court of Rome for permission to marry a relation, or to put away a wife ; for these marriages or divorces having become necessary to the state, the tranquillity of a kingdom consequently depended upon the pope’s manner of dunking ; and the popes were frequently enemies to France.

The other reason which united Louis XII. to Alex¬ ander VI. was the desire he had to defend his fatal claim to the dominions of Italy. Louis claimed the duchy of Milan in right of one of his grandmothers, who was a sister of a Visconti, who had been in possession of that principality ; but this claim was opposed by the exclusive right granted to Louis the Moor, by the emperor Maximilian, who had likewise married Louis’s niece.

The public feudal law was so changeable that it could only be interpreted by the law of force. This duchy of Milan, the ancient kingdom of the Lom¬ bards, was a fief of the empire, and it had not been determined whether it was a male or female fief, or

whether the daughters had a right of inheritance.

Vol. 26 — 14

2. 1 0

Ancient and Modern History.

The grandmother of Louis XII., who was daughter of Visconti, duke of Milan, had by her marriage- contract only the county of Asti. This marriage- contract proved the cause of all the miseries of Italy, the disgraces of Louis XII., and the misfortunes of Francis I. Almost all the Italian states were thus fluctuating in uncertainty, unable either to recover their liberty, or to determine what master they were to belong to.

The claim of Louis XII. on Naples was the same as that of Charles VIII.

Caesar Borgia, the pope's bastard, was charged with the commission of carrying the bull of divorce to France, and negotiating with the king on the measures relating to this conquest. Borgia did not leave Rome till he was assured of the duchy of Val- entinois, a company of one hundred armed men, and a pension of twenty thousand livres, all of which Louis granted him, together with his promise to procure for him the king of Navarre’s sister. Caesar Borgia then, notwithstanding his being a deacon and archbishop, changed his ecclesiastical character for a secular one ; and the pope, his father, granted a dispensation at one and the same time to his son to quit the Church, and to the king of France to quit his wife. Matters were quickly arranged, and Louis prepared for a fresh invasion of Italy.

In this enterprise he had the Venetians on his side, who were to have a share in the spoils of the Milanese, They had already taken Bressan and the

21 I

Pope Alexander VI.

country of Bergamo, and aimed at nothing less than the possession of Cremona, to which they had as much right as to Constantinople.

The emperor Maximilian, whose business it was to have defended the duke of Milan, his father-in-law and vassal, against France, his natural enemy, was not at that time in a condition to assist him in per¬ son. He could with difficulty make head against the Swiss, who had effectually driven the Austrians out of all the places they had been possessed of in their country. Maximilian therefore acted upon this occasion the feigned part of indifference.

Louis XII. terminated amicably some disputes he had with this emperor’s son, Philip the Handsome, father of Charles V., afterward sovereign of the Low Countries ; and this Philip did homage in per¬ son to France for the counties of Flanders and Artois. This homage was received by Guy de Roche¬ fort, chancellor of France, in the following manner : The chancellor, seated and covered, held between his hands those of the prince joined together, who, standing uncovered, and without his sword and gir¬ dle, pronounced these words : “I do homage to Monsieur, the king, for my peerages of Flanders, Artois,” etc.

Louis having renewed the treaties made with Eng¬ land by Charles VIII., and being now secure on all sides, at least for a time, made his army pass the Alps. It is to be remarked that when he entered upon this war, instead of increasing the taxes he

212 Ancient and Modern History.

diminished them, and this indulgence first procured him from his subjects the title of “ Father of his Country.” But at the same time he sold a number of the posts called royal offices, especially those in the finances. Would it not then have been better to have imposed a regular and equal tax upon the people than to have introduced a shameful venality in the posts of that country, of which he pretended to be the father? This custom of putting offices up at sale came from Italy: in Rome they had for a long time sold the places in the apostolic chamber, and it is only of late years that the popes have abolished this pernicious custom.

The army which Louis XII. sent over the Alps was not more considerable than that with which Charles VIII. had conquered Naples ; but what must appear strange is that Louis the Moor, though only duke of Milan, Parma, and Placentia, and lord of Genoa, had an army altogether as strong as that of the king of France.

1499 — It was now seen for the second time what the furia francese could do against Italian cunning. The king’s army, in twenty days’ time, made itself master of the state of Milan and of Genoa, while the Venetians occupied the territory of Cremona.

Louis XII., after having conquered these beautiful provinces by his generals, made his entry into Milan, where he received the deputies from the Italian states, as a person who was their sovereign arbiter ; but no sooner had he returned to Lvons than that

2I3

Pope Alexander VI.

negligence which almost always succeeds impetu¬ osity lost the French Milan, in the same manner as it had lost them Naples. Louis the Moor, during this transient restoration paid a gold ducat for the head of every Frenchman brought to him. Then Louis XII. made another effort, and sent his general, Louis de la Trimouille, to repair the former oversights, who again entered the duchy of Milan. The Swiss, who, since the death of Charles VIII., had made use of the liberty they had recovered, to dispose of their services to whosoever would pay for them, were in great numbers among the soldiery of the French army as well as in that of the Milanese. It is remark¬ able that the dukes of Milan were the first princes who took the Swiss into pay. Maria Sforza set this example to the rest of the princes of Europe.

But on this occasion some captains of this nation, which had hitherto resembled ancient Sparta, in its liberty, equality, poverty, and courage, stained the honor of their country by their greediness for money. The duke of Milan had trusted the care of his per¬ son to these people, preferably to his Italian sub¬ jects; but they soon proved how unworthy they were of such confidence, by entering into an arrange¬ ment with the French, and confining the duke in the city of Novara ; and all the favor he could procure at their hands was to march out of the city with them in a Swiss dress, and a halbert in his hand. In this disguise he marched through the ranks of the French army ; but those who had so basely sold him quickly

214 Ancient and Modern History.

discovered him to the enemy, and he was taken pris¬ oner and conducted to Pierre-en-Cise, and from thence to the same tower of Bourges where Louis XII. had been himself confined when duke of Orleans ; thence he was removed to Loches, where he lived for ten years, not shut up in an iron cage, as vulgar report has it, but treated with distinction, and allowed during the last years of his confinement to go anywhere within five leagues of the castle.

Louis XII., now master of Milan and Genoa, resolved to get possession of Naples also ; but he feared that same Ferdinand the Catholic who had once before driven the French from that country.

Therefore as he had before joined with the Ven¬ etians for the conquest of Milan, and had given them part of the spoils, he now entered into an engage¬ ment of the same nature with Ferdinand for the con¬ quest of Naples, that prince preferring a share in the spoils of his family to the honor of succoring it ; and by this treaty he divided with France the kingdom of Frederick, the last king of the bastard branch of Aragon. His Catholic majesty kept Apulia and Calabria to himself, and the rest went to France.

Pope Alexander VI., the ally of Louis XII., engaged in this conspiracy against an innocent mon¬ arch, his feudatory, and granted to these two kings the investiture he had before bestowed upon the king of Naples. The Catholic king sent the same general Gonsalvo de Cordova to Naples, under pretence of assisting his relative, but in reality to overwhelm

215

Pope Alexander VI.

him. The French now invaded the kingdom by sea and land, and the Neapolitans were not accustomed to risk their lives in defence of their kings.

1501 — The unfortunate monarch, betrayed by his own relation, pressed by the French arms, and destitute of resources, chose rather to put himself in the hands of Louis XII., whom he looked upon as a generous enemy, than to trust to the Catholic king, who had behaved with such perfidy toward him. Accordingly he demanded a passport from the French to leave his kingdom, and arrived in France with five galleys; there he lived upon a pension granted him by the king, of one hundred and twenty thousand livres, of our present money. Strange des¬ tiny for a sovereign prince !

Louis XII. then had at one time a duke of Milan for his prisoner, and a king of Naples, a follower of his court, and his pensioner. The republic of Genoa was one of his provinces ; his people were moder¬ ately taxed, and his kingdom the most flourishing in the world, and wanted nothing but the industry of commerce and the reputation of the liberal arts, which, as we shall hereafter see, were the peculiar lot of Italy.

21 6 Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER XC.

THE VILLAINIES OF THE FAMILY OF ALEXANDER VI.

AND OF CAESAR BORGIA - SEQUEL OF AFFAIRS

BETWEEN LOUIS XII. AND FERDINAND THE CATHO¬ LIC - DEATH OF POPE ALEXANDER.

V

Alexander VI. effected, in a less degree, that which Louis XII. executed in the greater. He sub¬ dued the fiefs in Romagna by the arms of his son ; everything seemed to conspire to the aggrandize¬ ment of this son, who nevertheless had but little enjoyment of his good fortune, and labored, with¬ out knowing it, for the church patrimony.

There was not any one act of oppression, artifice, heroic courage or villainy which Caesar Borgia left unpractised. He made use of more art and dexterity to get possession of eight or ten little towns, and to rid himself of a few noblemen that stood in his way, than Alexander, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, or Mahomet had done to subdue the greater part of the habitable globe. Indulgences were sold to raise troops; and we are assured by Cardinal Bembo, that, in the territories of Venice alone, there were as many disposed of as amounted to one thousand six hundred gold marks. The tenth penny was levied on all the revenues of the clergy, under pretence of a war against the Turks, when, instead of that, it was only to carry on a slight skirmish near the gates of Rome.

217

Pope Alexander VI.

First they seized the estates of the Colonnas and Savatelli, in the neighborhood of Rome. Borgia next made himself master, partly by artifice, and partly by force, of Forli, Faenza, Rimini, Imola, and Piombino, and in the course of these petty con¬ quests, perfidy, assassination, and poison were the chief arms he used. He demanded, in the name of the pope, troops and artillery from the duke of Urbino, which he employed against this very duke, and drove him out of his dominions. He drew the lord of Camerino to a conference, where he caused him to be strangled, together with two of his sons. He engaged, upon the surety of the most solemn oaths, four noblemen — the dukes of Gravina, Oliverotto, Pagolo, and Vitelli — to come and treat with him near Senigallia, who fell into the ambush he had prepared for them ; and Oliverotto and Vitelli were, by his orders, most inhumanly mur¬ dered. Could one suppose that Vitelli, when in the agonies of death, would beseech his murderer to obtain for him of the pope, his father, an indulgence in articulo mortis; and yet this is asserted by con¬ temporary writers. Nothing can better show the weakness of mankind, and the force of persuasion. If Caesar Borgia had died before his father, of that poison which it is pretended they had prepared for the cardinals, and of which both of them drank by mistake; if Borgia had been the first, I say, who had died on this occasion, it would have been no

21 8 Ancient and Modern History.

matter of surprise to have heard him ask a plenary indulgence of his father.

Alexander VI. at the same time apprehended the relations of these unfortunate noblemen, and had them strangled in the castle of St. Angelo. What is truly deplorable is, that Louis XII., the father of his people, countenanced these barbarities of the pope in Italy, and suffered him with impunity to shed the blood of these victims for the sake of being assisted by him in conquering Naples. Thus, what is called policy and the interest of the estate made him unjustly partial to Alexander. What a policy, what an interest of estate must that be which led him to abet the oppression of a man by whom he was soon afterward betrayed himself !

It was the destiny of the French to conquer Naples, and to be again expelled from it. Ferdi¬ nand the Catholic, who had betrayed the last king of Naples, who was his relative, did not prove more faithful to Louis XII. who was his ally, but soon entered into an agreement with Pope Alexander, to deprive that prince of his share in that partition.

Gonsalvo de Cordova, who so well merited the title of the Great Captain, though not of the good man, and who used to say that the web of honor should be slightly woven, first deceived the French, and then conquered them. It appears to me, that the French commanders have in general a greater share of that courage which honor inspires than of the artifice necessary for conducting great affairs. The

219

Pope Alexander VI.

duke of Nemours, a descendant of Clovis, who was then at the head of the French army, challenged Gonsalvo to single combat; Gonsalvo replied by defeating his army several times, especially at Cerig- nola in Apulia, in 1503, where Nemours himself was slain with four thousand of his men. It is said, that not more than nine Spaniards were killed in this battle, an evident proof that Gonsalvo had made choice of an advantageous post, that Nemours wanted prudence, and that his soldiers were dis¬ heartened. The famous Chevalier Bayard in vain sustained alone, on a narrow bridge, the attack of two hundred of the enemy. His resistance was glorious, but it answered no purpose.

In this war they first found out a new method of destroying mankind. Peter of Navarre, a soldier of fortune, and a great general among the Span¬ iards, discovered the use of mines, and made the first trial of them upon the French.

Notwithstanding this ill success, the kingdom of France was at that time so powerful that Louis XII. found himself able to send three armies at once into the field, and a large fleet to sea. Of these three armies, one was destined against Naples, and the two others for Roussillon and Fontarabia; but not one of them made any progress, and that sent against Naples quickly met with an entire defeat. At length Louis XII. irrecoverably lost his share of the kingdom of Naples.

1503 — Soon after, Italy was delivered from Pope

22,0 Ancient and Modern History.

Alexander VI. and his son. All historians have taken pleasure in recording that this pope died of the poison he had prepared for several cardinals, whom he had invited to an entertainment. An end suitable to his life !

But there seems very little probability in this story. It is pretended, that being in urgent necessity of money, he wanted to inherit the estates of these cardinals ; but it is proved that Caesar Borgia carried away one hundred thousand gold ducats out of his father’s treasury after his death, consequently this want of money was not real. Besides, how came this mistake in the bottle of poisoned wine, which is said to have occasioned this pope’s death and brought his son to the brink of the grave? Men who have been long conversant with crimes of this nature leave no room for making such mistakes. No person is mentioned as having made this con¬ fession; it would seem very difficult then, to have come at the information. If, when the pope died, this had been known to be the cause of his death, those who were intended to be poisoned must have likewise come to the knowledge of it, and they would hardly have permitted Borgia to take quiet possession of his father’s treasures. The people, who frequently hate their masters, and must have held such masters in particular execration, though they might have been kept under during Alexan¬ der s lifetime, would undoubtedly have rebelled at his death, would have disturbed the funeral obse-

221

Pope Alexander VI.

quies of such a monster, and have torn his abomin¬ able son in pieces. In fine, the journal of the Borgia family says that the pope at the age of seventy-two was attacked by a violent tertian, which soon turned to a continual fever, and proved mortal : this is not the effect of poison. It is said moreover, that the duke of Borgia caused himself to be sewed up in a mule’s belly: I should be glad to know to what sort of poison a mule’s belly is an antidote, and how this dying man could go to the Vatican, and get his father’s money. Was he shut up in his mule when he carried it off ?

It is certain, that after the pope’s death there was a sedition in Rome; the Colonnas and the Orsini entered it in arms. This was the most proper time for accusing the father and son of such a crime. In fine, Pope Julius II., who was the sworn enemy of this family, and who had the duke of Borgia for a long time in his power, never imputed that to him which was so universally laid to his charge.

But, on the other hand, how happens it that Car¬ dinal Bembo, Guicciardini, Paul Giovio, Tommasi, and so many other writers of those times, all agree in this strange accusation? Whence such a multi¬ tude of particular circumstances ? And why do they pretend to give the very name of the poison made use of on this occasion, which it seems was called Cantarella? To all this it may be answered, that it is no difficult matter to invent circumstances in an accusation, and that in one of so horrible a

ill Ancient and Modern History.

nature, it was necessary to give the coloring of probability.

Alexander VI. left behind him a more detestable memory in Europe than Nero or Caligula in the Roman Empire ; the sanctity of his station adding a double weight to his guilt. Nevertheless, Rome was indebted to him for her temporal greatness ; and it was this pontiff who enabled his successors to hold at times the balance of Italy.

His son lost all the fruits of his crimes, and the Church profited by them. Almost all the cities which he had conquered, either by fraud or force, chose another master as soon as his father died ; and Pope Julius II. obliged him soon after to deliver up the rest, so that he had nothing left of all his wicked greatness. Everything reverted to the holy see, which reaped more benefit from his wickedness than from the abilities of all its popes, assisted by the arms of religion.

Machiavelli pretends that he had so well con¬ certed his measures, that he must have been master of Rome and the whole ecclesiastical state after the death of his father, but that it was impossible for him to foresee that he himself should be at the point of death at the very time that Alexander finished his life.

In a very short time he was abandoned by friends, enemies, allies, relatives, and all the world; and he who had betrayed so many, was himself at length betrayed ; Gonsalvo de Cordova, the Great Captain,

Louis XII.

223

with whom he had trusted himself, sent him prisoner to Spain. Louis XII. took from him his duchy of Valentinois, and his pension. At length, having found means to escape from his prison, he took refuge in Navarre. Courage, which is not a virtue, but a happy qualification, alike common to the wicked and the virtuous, did not forsake him in his distresses ; and, while he was in his asylum, he still kept up to every part of his character: he carried on intrigues, and commanded in person the army of the king of Navarre, his father-in-law, during a war which that prince entered into at his advice to dispossess his vassals of their estates, as he himself had formerly done by the vassals of the holy see. He was slain fighting. A glorious end ! whereas, we see in the course of this history, lawful sover¬ eigns, and men of the strictest virtue, fall by the hand of the common executioner.

CHAPTER XCI.

SEQUEL OF THE POLITICAL CONCERNS OF LOUIS XII.

The French might possibly have repossessed them¬ selves of Naples, as they had done of Milan; But the ambition of Cardinal d’Amboise, prime minister to Louis XII., was the occasion of losing that state forever. Chaumont d’Amboise, archbishop of Rouen, so much admired for having only a single benefice, but who had at least another in the kingdom of France, which he governed without control,

224 Ancient and Modern History.

wanted one of a more elevated rank. He aimed at the papacy after the death of Alexander VI., and he must have been elected, had his politics been equal to his ambition. He was master of great treasures. The army which was going to invade Naples was then at the gates of Rome: but the Italian cardinals persuaded him to remove it to a greater distance, pretending that the election would by that means appear more free, and consequently be of greater validity. He went into the snare, drew off the army, and then Cardinal Julian de la Rovere, in I5°3> caused Pius III. to be elected, who lived not quite a month to enjoy his new dignity. After his death Cardinal Julian, called Julius II., was himself made pope, and the rainy season coming on, prevented the French from passing the Garigliano, and favored the operations of Gonsalvo de Cordova. Thus Cardinal d’Amboise, who nevertheless passes for a wise man, lost himself the tiara, and his master the kingdom of Naples.

A fault of another kind with which he is reproached is the unaccountable Treaty of Blois, by which the king’s council, with one stroke of a pen, mutilated and destroyed the French monarchy. By this treaty the king gave his only daughter, by Anne of Brittany, in marriage to the grandson of the emperor, and Ferdinand the Catholic, his two great¬ est enemies ; this young prince was the same who afterward proved the scourge and terror of France, and all Europe, by the name of Charles V. Can it

Louis XII.

225

be supposed that he was to have in dowry with his wife the entire provinces of Brittany and Burgundy, with an absolute cession on the part of France, too, of all her rights to Milan and Genoa? and yet all this did Louis XII. give away from his kingdom, in case he should die without male issue. There can be no excuse for a treaty of so extraordinary a kind, unless by saying that the king and Cardinal d’Amboise had no intention to keep it, and that in short Ferdinand had taught the cardinal the art of dissimulation.

Accordingly, we find that the states-general, in an assembly held at Tours in 1506, remonstrated against this fatal scheme. Perhaps the king, who began to repent of what he had done, was artful enough to get his kingdom to demand that of him which he did not dare to do of his own accord ; or perhaps he yielded to the remonstrances of the nation from the pure dictates of reason. In fine, the heiress of Anne of Brittany was taken from the heir of Austria and Spain, as her mother had been from the emperor Maximilian. She was then mar¬ ried to the count of Angouleme, afterward Francis I., and Brittany, which had been twice annexed to the crown of France, and was twice very near slipping through its hands, was now incorporated with it ; and Burgundy also was still preserved.

Louis XII. is accused of committing another error in joining in a league against his allies, the Venetians,

with all their secret enemies. And it was an Vol. 26 — 15

22.6 Ancient and Modern History.

unheard-of event, that so many kings should con¬ spire to destroy a republic, which not more than three hundred years before, was a town of fisher¬ men, who afterward became illustrious and opulent merchants.

CHAPTER XCII.

THE LEAGUE OF CAM BRAY, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.

POPE JULIUS II.

Pope Julius II., who was a native of Savona, in the Genoese dominions, could not without indignation see his country under the French yoke. Genoa had lately made an effort to recover its ancient liberty, for which Louis XII. punished that republic with more ostentation than rigor. He entered the city with his sword drawn, and ordered all its charters to be burned in his presence. He afterward caused a throne to be erected on a high scaffold, in the market-place, and obliged the principal citizens of Genoa to come to the foot of this scaffold, and there upon their knees to hear their sentence, which was only to pay a fine of one hundred thousand gold crowns: he then built a citadel to awe the city, which he called the bridle of Genoa.

The pope, who, like the most of his predecessors, wished to drive all foreigners out of Italy, endeav¬ ored to send the French over the Alps again ; but he was willing, in the first place, to get the Vene¬ tians to join with him, and that they should begin

The League of Cambray. 227

by restoring to him several cities, to which the holy see had pretensions, the greatest part of which had been wrested from their possessors by Caesar Borgia, duke of Valentinois: and the Venetians, ever watchful of their interests, had, immediately after the death of Alexander VI., seized the towns of Rimini and Faenza, and several lands in Bologna, Ferrara, and the duchy of Urbino : these conquests they were determined to keep. Julius II. then made use of the French to oppose the Venetians, whom he had before endeavored to arm against the French : nor did he think the French alone sufficient, but endeavored to draw all the other powers of Europe into the league.

There was hardly one sovereign who had not some demand on the territories of this republic. Emperor Maximilian had unlimited pretensions as emperor; and besides, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, the march of Trevizana, and Friuli lay convenient for him. Fer¬ dinand the Catholic, king of Aragon, might take back some seaport towns in Naples, which he had pledged to the Venetians. This would have been an easy way of paying off his debts. The king of Hungary had pretensions to a part of Dalmatia. The duke of Savoy might also claim the island of Cyprus, in virtue of his alliance with the princes of that country, who were now extinct. The people of Florence likewise, as near neighbors, might come in for their share in these demands.

T 508 — Almost all the powers who were at enmity

228 Ancient and Modern History.

with one another suspended their private disputes to join in the general league set on foot at Cambray, against the Venetians. The Turk, who was the natural enemy of this republic, but then at peace with her, was the only power who did not accede to this treaty. Never were so many kings in league against ancient Rome. Venice was as rich as all the confederates together. To this resource she trusted, and that dissension which she wisely judged would speedily happen among so many confederates. It was in her power to appease Julius II., who was the chief promoter of this league : but she disdained to make any concession, and dared the fury of the storm. This was perhaps the only time the Vene¬ tians were rash.

The pope began his declaration of war by excom¬ munications, which at that time were held in more contempt at Venice than in any other nation. Louis XII. sent a herald at arms to the doge to denounce war in form against him ; at the same time he demanded the restitution of the territories of Cre¬ mona, which he himself had ceded to the Venetians when they assisted him in retaking Milan, and more¬ over laid claim to Brescia, Bergamo, and several other territories.

The rapid success which had always accompanied the French army in the beginning of all their expedi¬ tions did not fail them in this. Louis XII., at the head of his army, routed the Venetian forces in the famous battle of Agnadello, fought near the river

The League of Cambray. 229

Adda, in 1509. Immediately after this victory every one of the confederates seized his pretended lot. Julius II. made himself master of all Romagna. Thus the popes, who, as we are informed by history, owed their first demesnes to a French emperor, were now obliged to the victorious army of Louis XII., king of France, for the rest ; and from that memor¬ able day they became possessed of almost the whole of these territories which they at present occupy.

The emperor’s troops in the meantime advanced toward Friuli, and seized Trieste, which has ever since belonged to the house of Austria. The Span¬ iards laid hold of the Venetian possessions in Cala¬ bria; and even the duke of Ferrara, and the marquis of Mantua, who were formerly generals in the Venetian service, had a share in the general spoil. Venice now exchanged her foolhardy courage for the deepest consternation. She abandoned all her towns on the mainland, released Padua and Verona from their oath of allegiance, and reduced to her ancient Lagunes, sued for mercy to Emperor Maxi¬ milian, whose great success made him inflexible.

And now Pope Julius, having fulfilled his first design, which was that of aggrandizing the see of Rome on the ruins of Venice, began to think of the second, which was to drive the barbarians, as they were called, out of Italy.

Louis XII. was returned to France, where, like Charles VIII., he remained as negligent in securing his conquests as he had been eager to make them.

230 Ancient and Modern History.

The pope granted the Venetians his pardon, who, somewhat recovered from their first consternation, continued to make headway against the emperor.

At length Julius entered into a league with this republic against those very French whom he had before invited to assist in oppressing it. His aim was to ruin all the foreign powers in Italy by the arms of one another, and to exterminate the small remains of German authority yet left in that coun¬ try, and to raise Italy to a respectable and powerful state, of which the sovereign pontiff might be the chief. To compass his project he spared neither negotiations, money, nor pains. He directed the war in person, he attended in the trenches, and braved death in all its shapes. He is blamed by most historians for his ambition and obstinacy : but they should do justice to his consummate courage, and the grandeur of his views.

A fresh error committed by Louis XII., favored the designs of Pope Julius. Louis was fond of that economy which is a virtue in a peaceable administra¬ tion, but a vice in the prosecution of great under¬ takings.

By a mistaken discipline the chief strength of an army was at that time centred in the gendarmerie, who fought either on foot or on horseback ; and the French had never been at the pains to form a good body of infantry of their own, which, however, was very easy to be done, as experience has since shown.

The League of Cambray. 23 1

The kings of France then always kept a body of German and Swiss foot in their pay.

It is well known that the Swiss infantry greatly contributed to the conquest of Milan. In this busi¬ ness they had not only sold their lives, but even their honor, by betraying Louis the Moor. The Swiss cantons now demanded an increase of pay from Louis, which he refused to grant. The pope took advantage of this ; he wheedled the Swiss, he g'ave them money, and flattered them with the title of Defenders of the Church. He sent emissaries among them to preach against the French; the people, naturally of a warlike disposition, ran in crowds to hear these sermons. What was this but preaching up a crusade ?

It may have been observed, that through. an unac¬ countable concurrence of circumstances and con¬ junctures, the French were now allies of the Ger¬ mans, whose declared enemies they had been on so many former occasions. Nay, they were even their vassals; for Louis XII. had purchased for one hundred thousand gold crowns, the investiture of the duchy of Milan, of the emperor, who was neither a powerful ally nor a faithful friend, and who, as emperor, could not be supposed to love either the French or the pope.

Ferdinand the Catholic, whose dupe Louis had alwavs been, deserted the League of Cambray as soon as he had gained possession of the places he claimed in Calabria. He had prevailed on the pope

2J2 Ancient and Modern History.

to grant him the full and entire investiture of the kingdom of Naples, who by this means bound him firmly in his interest ; so that Julius, by his superior skill in politics, gained over not only the Venetians, the Swiss, and the kingdom of Naples, but also the English, while France was left to bear the brunt of the war alone.

1510 — Louis XII., on being attacked by the pope, called an assembly of the bishops at Tours, to know whether he might safely defend himself against the pontiff, and whether the excommunications of this latter would be valid. In these more enlightened days, we may be surprised that such questions were thought necessary; but we should consider the prej¬ udices of the times ; and here I cannot forbear remarking the first case of conscience which was proposed in this assembly. The president put the question, whether or not the pope had a right to declare war on an occasion that did not relate to religion or the Church patrimony ; it was answered in the negative. Now it is plain that the question here proposed was not that which should have been asked, and that the answer was contrary to what should have been given : for in matters of religion of church possessions, a bishop, if we believe the Holy Scriptures, should be so far from making war, that he is only to pray and to suffer; but in a political affair, a pope not only may, but should assist his allies, and avenge the cause of Italy. Besides, the pope made war at this time to increase

The League of Cambray. 233

the Church demesnes by the addition of Ferrara and Bologna, whose possessors were under the protec¬ tion of France.

This French assembly made a more noble answer, when it resolved to abide by the pragmatic sanction of Charles VIII., to stop all future remittances to Rome, and to levy a subsidy on the clergy of France for carrying on the war against the pope, the Roman head of these clergy.

The operations were begun on the side of Bologna and Ferrara. The pope laid siege to Mirandola; and this pontiff, at the age of seventy, appeared in the trenches armed cap-a-pie, visited all the works, hastened the operations, and entered the breach in person.

15 1 1 — While the pope, worn out with age, was toiling under arms, the French king, still in the prime of his vigor, was holding councils, and endeavoring to stir up the ecclesiastical powers of Christendom, as the pope did the military ones. The council was held at Pisa, whither several car¬ dinals, who were the pope’s enemies, repaired. But this council of the king’s proved a fruitless under¬ taking, while the pope’s warlike enterprises met with success.

They in vain caused medals to be struck at Paris, in which Louis XII. was represented with this device, “Perdam Babylonis nomen,” — “I will destroy even the name of Babylon.’ It was shame¬ ful to boast of what he was so little able to execute.

234 Ancient and Modern History.

Heroic deeds, and even battles gained, may serve to render a nation famous, but can never increase its power while there is an essential error in the political administration, which at length must bring on its ruin. This is what happened to the French in Italy. The brave Chevalier de Bayard acquired universal admiration by his courage and generosity. Young Gaston de Foix made his name immortal at the age of twenty-three, by repulsing a large body of Swiss, passing with amazing speed four rivers, beating the pope in Bologna, and gaining the famous battle of Ravenna, where he won immortal glory, and lost* his life. These rapid exploits made a noble figure; but the king was at a great distance from his army : his orders came often too late, and were sometimes contradictory. His parsimony, at a time when he should have been lavish in his rewards, checked all emulation. Military discipline and sub¬ ordination were unknown among his troops. The infantry was composed of German foreigners, who were mercenaries attached to no interest. The French gallantry, and that air of superiority which belongs to conquerors, at once irritated the subjected Italians, and made them jealous. At length the fatal blow was struck by Emperor Maximilian, who, gained over by the pope, published the imperial ajocatoria — or letters of recall — by which every German soldier, serving in the armies of France, was ordered to quit them, under pain of being declared a traitor to his country.

The League of Cambray. 235

The Swiss at the same time came down from their mountains to fight against the French, who at the time of the League of Cambray had all Europe for their ally, and now beheld it up in arms against them. These mountaineers made an honor of bring¬ ing with them the son of that Louis the Moor, duke of Milan, whom they had betrayed, to expiate in some measure the treachery they had been guilty of toward the father, by crowning his son.

The French, who were commanded by Marshal Trivulce, were obliged to abandon, one after another, all the towns they had taken from the furthermost part of Romagna to the borders of Savoy. The famous Bayard made some fine retreats ; but he was still a hero obliged to fly. There were but three months between the victory of Ravenna and the total expulsion of the French from Italy: and Louis XII. had the mortification of seeing young Maximilian Sforza, son of the deceased duke, who had been a prisoner in his dominions, settled upon his father’s throne by the Swiss ; and Genoa, where that prince had estab¬ lished a kind of Asiatic pomp of power, resumed its liberty, and drove the French out of his terri¬ tories.

The Swiss, who from being mercenaries to the French king, had now become his enemies, laid siege to the city of Dijon, with twenty thousand men. Paris was struck with dread ; and Louis de la Tri- mouille, governor of the province of Burgundy,

236 Ancient and Modern History.

could not get rid of these invaders, without paying them twenty thousand crowns in ready money, with a promise in the king’s name of four hundred thou¬ sand more, and giving seven hostages for the pay¬ ment. Thus were the French obliged to pay dearer for the invasion of these people than they would have done for their assistance. The Swiss, enraged at not receiving the fourth part of the money stipu¬ lated, condemned the hostages to be put to death : upon which the king was obliged to promise not only to pay them the whole sum agreed, but also to advance as much more. But the hostages having luckily made their escape, the king saved his money, but not his honor.

CHAPTER XCIII.

SEQUEL OF THE AFFAIRS OF LOUIS XII., OF FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, AND OF HENRY VIII., KING OF ENG¬ LAND.

This famous League of Cambray, which was at first set on foot against the Venetians, was at length turned against France, and became particularly fatal to Louis XII. We have already seen that there were two princes in Europe above the rest, superior in abilities to the French king; these were Ferdinand the Catholic and the pope. Louis had made himself feared only for a short time ; and afterward had all the rest of Europe to fear.

While he was losing Milan and Genoa, together

Louis XII., Etc.

237

with his money and his troops, he was moreover deprived of a barrier which France had against Spain. His ally and relative, John d’Albret, king of Navarre, saw his dominions in an instant seized by Ferdinand the Catholic. This robbery was covered by a religious pretext. Ferdinand pre¬ tended a bull from Pope Julius II., excommunicat¬ ing John d’Albret as an adherent of the French king, and the Council of Pisa. The kingdom of Navarre has ever since continued in the possession of the Spaniards.

The better to understand the politics of this Fer¬ dinand, so remarkable for his continual professions of religion and good faith, and his always breaking them, let us examine the art he used in this con¬ quest. The young king of England, Henry VIII., was his son-in-law. To him he proposed a treaty of alliance, by which the English were to be rein¬ stated in Guienne, their ancient patrimony, whence they had been expelled above a century. The young king, dazzled with this specious promise, sent a fleet and forces into the Bay of Biscay, in 1512, which Ferdinand employed in the conquest of Na¬ varre ; and afterward left the English .to return home, without making the least attempt upon Gui¬ enne, which indeed it was impracticable to invade. Thus he deceived his son-in-law, after having successively imposed on the king of Naples, the Venetians, Louis XII., and the pope. His Spanish subjects gave him the titles of the Wise and the

238 Ancient and Modern History.

Prudent ; in Italy he was called the Pious ; and at Paris and London the Treacherous.

Louis XII., who had provided sufficiently for the security of Guienne, had not the same good fortune with regard to Picardy. The new king of England, Henry VIII., took advantage of the general distress to invade France on this side, into which he had always an easy access through Calais, of which he was in possession.

This young monarch, boiling with ambition and courage, attacked France alone, without the assist¬ ance either of the emperor Maximilian, of Fer¬ dinand the Catholic, or any other of his allies. The old emperor, always enterprising and poor, served without blushing in the king of England’s army, for the daily pay of one hundred crowns. Henry, by his single strength, seemed in a condition to renew the fatal times of Poitiers and Agincourt. He gained a complete victory at the battle of Guinegate, which is called the Battle of the Spurs, in 1513. He took Terouane, which is no longer a town; and Tournay, a city which has been always incorporated with the kingdom of France, and the nursery of that monarchy.

Louis XII. who was at this time a widower, by the death of his wife, Anne of Brittany, could not purchase peace of Henry on any other terms than those of marrying his sister, the princess Mary of England ; but, instead of receiving a portion with' his wife, which not only princes, but even private

Louis XII., Etc. 239

persons are entitled to, Louis was obliged to pay a dowry, and it cost him a million crowns to marry the sister of his conqueror. Thus, after having been ransomed both by the English and the Swiss, duped by Ferdinand, and driven from his conquests in Italy, by the resolution of Pope Julius II. he finished his inglorious career, in 1515.

On account of the few taxes he laid upon his people, he was called their Father, a title he would otherwise have acquired, from the heroes with which France then abounded, had he by exacting the necessary contributions preserved Italy, checked the insolence of the Swiss, properly aided Navarre, and driven back the English.

But if he was unfortunate abroad he was happy at home. No other fault can be laid to this prince’s charge but that of selling the posts in the state ; and this venality did not extend in his time to the officers of judicature. By this sale of employments he raised, during the seventeen years of his reign, the sum of one million two hundred thousand livres in the single diocese of Paris. But then, on the other hand, the aids and taxes were very moderate. He showed a fatherly affection for his people, by never loading them with heavy burdens ; and did not look upon himself as sovereign of France in the same manner as the lord of a fief is of his lands, merely to be furnished with subsistence from them. In his time there were no new impositions; and when Fromentau, in 1580, presented to that extrav-

24° Ancient and Modern History.

agant prince, Henry III., a comparative account of the sums exacted during his reign, and those which were paid to Louis XII., there appeared in each article an immense sum to be placed to the account of Henry, and a very moderate one to that of Louis, supposing it to have been an ancient right belonging to the crown ; but considered as an extraordinary tax, there remained nothing to be charged to Louis: unhappily for the kingdom this account of what was exacted by Henry, and not paid to Louis, makes a large volume.

The whole of this king’s revenue did not exceed thirteen millions of livres ; but these thirteen mil¬ lions are about fifty millions of the present money. Commodities of all kinds were much cheaper than they are at present, and the kingdom was not in debt: it is not, therefore, so very surprising, that with this small revenue in money, and a prudent economy, he could live in splendor, and keep his people in plenty. He took care to have public justice distributed diligently, impartially, and almost without expense. The fees of courts were not then one-fortieth part of what they are now. In the whole bailiwick of Paris there were at that time no more than forty-nine sergeants, or bailiffs, whereas there are at present five hundred. It must be allowed that Paris was not then one-fifth as large as it now is: but the number of the officers of jus¬ tice has increased in a much greater proportion than the extent of the city; and the evils, inseparable

Louis XII., Etc. 241

from all great capitals, have increased much more than the inhabitants.

He preserved the custom of the parliaments of the kingdom, to choose three candidates to fill up a vacant seat ; the king nominated one of these, and the dignities in the law were then given only to the counsellors, as a reward for their merit or reputa¬ tion in their profession. His ever memorable edict of 1499, which should never be forgotten in history, has made his memory dear to every lover and dis¬ tributor of justice. By this edict he ordained that “ The law should always be observed, notwithstand¬ ing any orders contrary to law, which a sovereign might be induced to issue through importunity.”

The general plan, according to which you here study history, admits of but few details ; but par¬ ticular circumstances, like these upon which the welfare of states depends, and which form so excel¬ lent a lesson for princes, become one part of the principal object.

Louis XII. was the first of our kings who pro¬ tected the industrious laborer from the rapacious violence of the soldier, and punished with death those gendarmes who laid the peasants under con¬ tribution. This cost the lives of five or six gen¬ darmes, and the country was at ease : therefore, if he was neither the great hero, nor the profound poli¬ tician, he at least acquired the more valuable glory of being a good king; and his memory will con¬ tinue to be blessed by all posterity.

Vol. 26 — 16

242 Ancient and Modern History, CHAPTER XCIV.

ENGLAND, AND THE TROUBLES IN THAT KINGDOM,

AFTER ITS INVASION OF FRANCE - MARGARET OF

ANJOU, WIFE OF HENRY VI.

Pope Julius II., who, in the midst of the dissensions which still troubled Italy, continued firm to his design of driving thence all foreigners, had given the see of Rome a temporal power, to which it had hitherto been a stranger. Parma and Placentia were separated from the duchy of Milan, and annexed to the pope’s dominions by the consent of the emperor himself ; and Julius ended his pontificate and his life with this act, which does honor to his memory. The popes, his successors, have lost this state. The see of Rome was at that time a pre¬ ponderating temporal power in Italy.

Venice, though engaged in a war with Ferdinand the Catholic, as king of Naples, still continued very powerful, and made head at once against both Mahometans and Christians. Germany was at peace, and England began to grow formidable. We must inquire whence she set out, and whither she arrived.

The malady of Charles VI. had ruined France, and the natural weakness of Henry VI. desolated England.

1422 — In his minority his relatives disputed for the government, like those of Charles VI., and over¬ turned everything to command in his name. As in

England, Etc. 243

Paris a duke of Burgundy caused a duke of Orleans to be assassinated, so in London, the duchess of Gloucester, the king’s aunt, was accused of practis¬ ing sorcery against the life of Henry VI. A wretched woman fortune-teller and a foolish or knavish priest, who pretended to be magicians, were burned alive for this pretended conspiracy ; the duchess thought herself happy in being condemned only to do penance in her shift, and to be confined in prison for life. The spirit of philosophy was then very distant from that island, which was the centre of superstition and cruelty.

1444 — Most of the quarrels between sovereigns have ended in marriages. Charles VII. gave Mar¬ garet of Anjou to Henry VI. She was daughter of Rene of Anjou, king of Naples, duke of. Lorraine, and count of Maine, who, with all these titles, was without dominions, and could not afford to give the least portion with his daughter. Few princesses were more unhappy in a father and a husband. She was a woman of enterprising disposition and unshaken courage, and, but for one crime she com¬ mitted — which sullied her virtues — she might have passed for a heroine. She had all the talents of government, and all the virtues of war: but, at the same time, she gave rein to the cruel actions which ambition, war, and faction inspire. In a word, her boldness, and her husband’s pusillanimity, were the first causes of the public calamities which befell their kingdom.

244 Ancient and Modern History.

1447 — She had a desire to govern, and to this end it was necessary to get rid of the duke of Gloucester, the king’s uncle, and husband of that duchess who had already fallen a sacrifice to his enemies, and was confined by them in prison. The duke was arrested under pretence of being engaged in a new plot, and the next morning was found dead in his bed. This act of violence rendered both the queen’s administration and the king’s name odious to the English, who seldom hate without forming conspiracies. There happened to be at that time in England a descendant of Edward III., who was nearer related to the common stock than the family on the throne. This was the duke of York. He bore for the device on his shield a white rose ; and Henry VI., who was of the house of Lancaster, bore a red rose. Hence came these two names so famous in the civil war.

1450 — Factions must in their beginnings be pro¬ tected by a parliament, till this parliament becomes the slave to the conqueror. The duke of York accused the duke of Suffolk before the parliament ; this duke was the queen’s prime minister and favor¬ ite ; these two titles had gained him the hatred of the nation. Here follows a strange instance of the effects of party hatred. The court, to content the people, banished this minister from the kingdom, who thereupon embarked on board a ship for France. The captain of a man-of-war met this ship at sea, and inquiring what passengers they had on

England, Etc. 245

board, was answered by the master,' that they were carrying the duke of Suffolk over to France. “ You shall not carry a person impeached by my country out of the island,” replied the captain ; and imme¬ diately ordered him on board his own ship and struck off his head. Thus did the English act in time of peace. The war which succeeded opened a scene of still greater horrors.

Henry VI. was afflicted with an infirmity which rendered him for some years incapable of thinking or acting. Thus Europe, in the course of this cen¬ tury, beheld three sovereigns, who, from a disorder in their brain, were plunged into the greatest mis¬ fortunes : the emperor Wenceslaus, Charles VI. of France, and Henry VI. of England.

1455 — In one of these unhappy years of Henry’s insanity, the duke of York and his cabal made them¬ selves masters of the council ; the king recovering, as it were, from a long trance, opened his eyes, and beheld himself deprived of all authority. His wife, Margaret of Anjou, exhorted him to be king; but, in order to be so, it was necessary to unsheathe the sword. The duke of York, who was expelled from the council, was already at the head of an army. Henry was carried to fight a battle at St. Alban’s, in which he was wounded and taken prisoner; but not then dethroned. The duke of York, his con¬ queror, carried him in triumph with him to London ; and, leaving him the empty title of king, took to

246 Ancient and Modern History.

himself that of protector, a title known before to the English.

tlenry VI., who had frequent returns of his weak¬ ness and disorder, was no other than a prisoner served with the exterior marks of royalty. His wife longed to set him at liberty, that she herself might be free, tier courage was her greatest misfortune ; she raised troops by the assistance of the noblemen in her interest, delivered her husband from his con¬ finement in London, and became herself the general of her army. Thus, within a short space of time, the English saw four French women at the head of armies — the wife of the count de Montfort, in Brittany; Edward II. ’s queen, in England; the Maid of Orleans, in France; and this Margaret of Anjou.

1460 — The queen herself drew up her army, and fought by her husband in the bloody battle of North¬ ampton. Her great enemy, the duke of York, was not in the opposite army; but his eldest son, the earl of March, served his first apprenticeship to civil Avar under the earl of Warwick, the most famous man of his time; a genius born for those days of tumult, full of artifice, and still more replete with courage and pride, fit either to direct a campaign, or to lead in the day of battle ; fruitful in resources, capable of everything, and formed to give or take away crowns at his pleasure. Warwick’s star pre¬ vailed again; Margaret of Anjou was defeated, had the grief to behold the king, her husband, taken

247

England, Etc.

prisoner in his tent ; and, while that unhappy mon¬ arch was calling to her with outstretched arms, she was obliged to ride off full speed with her son, the prince of Wales. Henry was a second time recon¬ ducted to his capital by his conquerors, where he remained still a king and a prisoner.

A parliament was now called ; and the duke of York, who was before protector, demanded a new title. He claimed the crown as the representative of Edward III., in preference to Henry VI., who was descended of a younger branch of that family. The cause of the real king, and of him who wanted to be such, was solemnly debated in the house of peers ; each side gave in their arguments in writing, as is done in a common cause. The duke of York, though the victor, could not carry his cause entirely. It was decided that Henry VI. should keep the crown during his lifetime ; and that it should devolve upon the duke of York after his death, to the exclusion of the prince of Wales. But a clause was added to this act, which proved a new declaration of war and tumults ; namely, that if the king did anything in violation of the said act, the crown should from that instant go to the duke of York.

Margaret of Anjou, though beaten, a wanderer at a distance from her husband, and having for enemies the victorious duke of York, the city of London, and the parliament, still maintained hei courage. She went through the principality of Wales and the neighboring counties, animating her

248 Ancient and Modern History.

former friends, endeavoring to make new, and raising another army. It is well known that the armies of those days did not consist of regular troops, kept long in the field, and in the pay of a single chief. Every nobleman brought with him what men he could pick up in haste, who were main¬ tained and paid by plunder ; and it was necessary to come to an engagement speedily, or retire. At length the queen, at the head of an army of eighteen thousand men, encountered her grand enemy, the duke of York, in the county of that name, near the castle of Sandal. The fortune of that day answered her courage. The duke of York was defeated, and died of his wounds in the field ; and his second son, Rutland, was taken as he was endeavoring to make his escape. The father’s head was fixed upon the town walls, together with those of his generals, where they remained a long time, as monuments of his defeat.

Margaret, at length victorious, marched to Lon¬ don to set the king, her husband, at liberty. The earl of Warwick, who was the soul of York’s party, was still at the head of an army, carrying with him his king and captive. The queen and Warwick met, in 1461, near St. Alban’s, a place famous for the many battles fought there. The queen had again the good fortune to conquer. She now enjoyed the pleasure of seeing the formidable Warwick flying before her, and of restoring to her husband, on the field of battle, his liberty and authority. Never had woman

England, Etc. 049

met with more success, or acquired greater glory ; but her triumph was short. She still wanted the city of London on her side, which Warwick had found means to secure so effectually, that when the queen presented herself for admittance, it was refused her, and she had not an army sufficiently strong to force it. The earl of March, eldest son of the duke of York, was in that city, and breathed nothing but revenge : in short, after all her victories, the queen was obliged to retreat. She went into the north of England to strengthen her party, which the name and presence of the king greatly increased.

In the meantime Warwick, who had London at his command, assembled the citizens in a field near the city gates ; and showing them the duke of York’s son asked them which they would choose for their king, that young prince, or Henry of Lan¬ caster ? The general cry served on this occasion instead of an assent of parliament, as there was none sitting at that time. Warwick, however, called together some few of the lords and bishops, who came to a resolution, that Henry of Lancaster had infringed the former act of parliament, by his wife’s having taken up arms for him.

The young duke of York, therefore, was pro¬ claimed king, in London, by the name of Edward IV., while his father's head still remained fixed upon the walls of York, as that of a traitor. Henry VI. was now deprived of his crown, who, when in his cradle, was proclaimed king of England and France,

250 Ancient and Modern History.

and had swayed the sceptre for thirty-eight years, without having ever been reproached with a crime, but that of imbecility.

His wife, who was then in the north of England, upon receiving this news, hastily assembled an army of sixty thousand men. This was a prodigious effort. This time, however, she hazarded neither her husband’s person, her son’s nor her own. War¬ wick led his new-made king with an army of forty thousand men to give the queen battle. They met at Towton, near the river Aire, on the borders of Yorkshire, when there was fought the most bloody battle that had ever contributed to depopulate Eng¬ land. The writers of those times tell us, that there fell no less than thirty-six thousand on that day. Warwick gained a complete victory, by which young Edward was established on the throne, and Mar¬ garet of Anjou was left the outcast of fortune. After the defeat she fled into Scotland with her hus¬ band and son, leaving Edward at full liberty to act as he pleased, who immediately took his father’s head, and those of his followers down from the city walls, placing in their room those of his enemy’s generals whom he had taken prisoners. England thus became a vast theatre of blood and human slaughter ; and scaffolds were raised in every part of the field of battle.

l

Edward IV., Etc.

251

CHAPTER XCV.

EDWARD IV., MARGARET OF ANJOU, AND THE MURDER OF HENRY VI.

The intrepid Margaret still preserved her courage. Finding herself deceived in the aid she expected from Scotland, she crossed over to France, through the midst of the enemy’s ships, which almost covered the sea, and applied for assistance to Louis XI. who had just begun his reign. Through a mistaken policy, he refused to grant her request ; but even this did not daunt her : she borrowed money and some ships, and at length obtained five hundred men, with which she re-embarked, and in her return to England met with a violent storm, which sepa¬ rated the vessel she was in from the rest of her small fleet. At length, however, she landed in England, where she gathered together an army, and once more dared the fortune of war. She was no longer so careful of her own person, nor of those of her hus¬ band and son. She risked another battle at Hexham, in 1462, which she lost as she had done so many others. After this defeat she remained wholly with¬ out resource ; the king, her husband, fled one way, and she with her son another, without servants or assistance, and exposed to every kind of accident and ill treatment. Henry fell into the hands of his enemies, who conducted him to London in an ignominious manner, and confined him in the Tower

i^i Ancient and Modern History.

Margaret had the good fortune to escape into France with her son, and took refuge with her father Rene of Anjou, who could do nothing more than lament her misfortunes.

Young Edward IV., who had been placed on the English throne by the arms of Warwick, being now rid of all his enemies, and in possession of Henry’s person, reigned in full security. But no sooner was he freed from his troubles, than he became ungrate¬ ful ; Warwick, who was a father to him, was at that time in France, negotiating a marriage between his prince and the Lady Bona of Savoy, sister of Louis’s queen. While this treaty was concluding, Edward happened to see Elizabeth Woodville, the widow of Sir John Gray, with whom he fell violently in love, and was privately married to her; after which he caused her to be proclaimed queen, in 1465, without once informing Warwick of any part of these trans¬ actions. After this glaring affront, he entirely neg¬ lected him, removed him from his councils, and by this treatment made him his irreconcilable enemy. Warwick, who had cunning equal to his courage, soon employed both in working his revenge. He brought over the duke of Clarence, the king’s brother, to his party, raised the kingdom of England in arms ; and instead of the contentions of the white and red roses, the civil war was carried on between the king and his incensed subject. On this occasion battles, truces, negotiations, and treasons followed one another in rapid succession. War-

Edward IV., Etc. 253

wick at length prevailed, and drove the king he had made from the throne ; after which, in 1470, he went to the Tower, and released Henry, whom he had before dethroned, and once more placed the crown on his head. This procured him the title of king-maker. The parliaments of those times were only the instruments of the will of the strong¬ est : Warwick assembled one, which reinstated Henry VI. in all his rights, and declared Edward IV. a usurper and a traitor, on whom it had but a few years before bestowed the crown. This long and bloody tragedy did not end here : Edward IV., who had fled to Holland, had a number of friends in England; accordingly he returned, seven months after his banishment, when the gates of London were opened to him by his party; and Henry, ever the sport of fortune, was hardly seated on his throne when he was sent again to the Tower. Margaret of Anjou, his queen, who was always ready to avenge his cause, and always fruitful in resources, came over to England at this time, with her son, the prince of Wales ; and the first news she heard at her landing was the fresh misfortune which had befallen her royal consort. But Warwick, who had been so long his persecutor, was now his defender, and headed an army in his behalf against Edward, whom he marched to meet. This was some consola¬ tion to the unhappy queen; but a very short time after she had heard of the imprisonment of her husband, a second courier brought her the news that

254 Ancient and Modern History.

Warwick was slain in battle, and that Edward remained conqueror.

It is amazing that a woman, after such a series of misfortunes, could still have the courage to brave fortune : but this very courage furnished her with resources and friends. Whoever headed a faction in England in those days was sure to see it strength¬ ened in length of time, by the hatred which generally prevails against the court and ministry. This partly helped to raise another army for Margaret, after all her various changes of fortune and defeats. There was hardly a county in England in which she had not fought a battle ; Tewkesbury, near the banks of the Severn, was witness to her last, in 1471; here she headed her troops in person, and went from rank to rank, showing the soldiers the young prince of Wales, whom she led by the hand. The fight was obstinate, but at length victory declared for Edward. The queen, losing sight of her son during the hurry of the defeat, and having in vain inquired for him, fell, deprived of all sense and motion, and recovered only to see her son taken prisoner, and her con- queior, Edward, standing before her. Her son was then taken from her, and she was carried prisoner to London, and confined in the Tower with her husband. While they were carrying off the queen, Edward, turning to the prince of Wales, asked him how he came to have the boldness to enter his dominions ? To which the young prince replied :

I am come into my father’s kingdom to avenge

Edward IV., Etc.

255

his cause, and rescue my inheritance out of your hands.” Edward, incensed at the freedom of this reply, struck him over the face with his gauntlet, and historians tell us, that immediately Edward’s two brothers, the duke of Clarence, whom he had lately restored to his favor, and the duke of Glou¬ cester, with some of their followers, fell upon the young prince like so many wild beasts, and hewed him to death with their swords on the field of battle. If such are the manners of the chiefs of the people, what must be those of the commonalty? They put all their prisoners to death, and at length determined to murder Henry himself. The respect which, even in those times of brutality and cruelty, had for upwards of forty years been paid to the virtues of this monarch, had hitherto stopped the hands of assassination ; but after the inhuman murder of the prince of Wales, very little regard was shown to the king; and the duke of Gloucester, who had before dipped his hands in the son’s blood, now went to the Tower, and put an end to the wretched father’s life.

Queen Margaret’s life was spared, because they were in hopes that the French court would purchase her liberty ; and accordingly, about four years after¬ ward, when Edward, after being settled in quiet possession of the throne, went to Calais with the intention of making war upon France, and Louis XL, by a sum of money and a shameful treaty, prevailed on him to return, this heroine was

256 Ancient and Modern History.

redeemed for fifty thousand crowns. This was a considerable sum to the English at that time, impoverished by their wars with France, and their troubles at home.

Margaret of Anjou, after having fought twelve battles in support of the rights of her husband and son, died in 1482, the most wretched queen, wife, sister, and mother in Europe ; and, but for the murder of her husband’s uncle, the most respect¬ able.

CHAPTER XCVI.

SEQUEL OF THE TROUBLES OF ENGLAND DURING THE REIGNS OF EDWARD IV., THE TYRANT RICHARD III., AND TO THE LATTER PART OF THE REIGN OF HENRY VII.

Edward IV. now reigned peaceably. The house of York was fully triumphant, and its power was cemented by the blood of almost all the princes of the Lancastrian family. Whoever considers the behavior of Edward will look upon him as no other than a barbarian, wholly devoted to revenge ; and yet he was a man given up to pleasure, and as busied in the intrigues of women as in those of the state. He did not stand in need of the title of king to please ; he was formed by nature one of the hand¬ somest men of his time, and the most amorous ; and, by an astonishing contrast, she had, with the tenderest sensibility, given him the most bloodthirsty

Edward IV.- Richard III.

257

and cruel disposition. He condemned his brother Clarence to lose his life upon the most frivolous suspicion, and only granted him the favor of choos¬ ing the manner of his death. Clarence desired to be drowned in a butt of wine. What reason can be given for so unaccountable a choice?

He knew the surest way to please the nation was to make war with France. We have already seen that in 1475 Edward crossed the sea, and that Louis XI., by a shameful policy purchased the retreat of a prince not so powerful as himself nor so well settled on his throne. To purchase peace of an enemy is to furnish him with the means to make war ; accordingly in 1483 Edward proposed to his parliament a fresh invasion of France, and never was proposal received with more universal joy; but while he was making preparations for this great undertaking, he died, in 1483, in the forty-second year of his age.

As he was of a very robust constitution, his brother Richard, duke of Gloucester, was suspected of having shortened his days by poison. The public suspicion was neither rash nor ill-founded ; Glou¬ cester was a monster, born with a disposition to commit the deepest and most deliberate crimes.

Edward IV. at his death left two sons : the eldest of these was thirteen years of age, and succeeded his father, by the name of Edward V. Gloucester formed the design of taking these two children

from their mother, in order to put them to death

Vol. 26 — 17

258 Ancient and Modern History.

and seize the crown for himself, and spared no kind of dissimulation, artifice, and oaths, to secure their persons, which he no sooner accomplished than he lodged them both in the Tower, that they might, as he pretended, be in greater safety. But he met with an unexpected obstacle in putting this double assassination in execution. He had caused Lord Hastings, a nobleman of a violent char¬ acter, but firmly attached to the person of the young king, to be sounded by his emissaries : this lord had given plain intimations of his horror at being concerned in any such crime. Gloucester then, find¬ ing his secret in such dangerous hands, did not hesitate an instant in the part he was to act. The council of state, of which Hastings was a member, sat in the Tower ; thither came Gloucester, attended by a band of armed followers, and addressing him¬ self to Lord Hastings, told him that he arrested him for high crimes. “Who! me, my lord?” replied the accused nobleman. “ Yes, thee, traitor,” answered Gloucester; and immediately, in presence of the council, ordered him to be beheaded.

Having thus rid himself of one who was privy to his secret, he, despising the forms of law with which the English always covered over their most wicked attempts, gathered together a rabble from the dregs of the people, who, assembling in the Guildhall of the city, cried out that they would have Richard of Gloucester for their king ; and the mayor of London went the next day, at the head of

Edward IV.— Richard III. 259

this mob, and made him an offer of the crown, which he accepted, and was crowned without call¬ ing a parliament, or offering the least show of reason for such a procedure. He only caused a rumor to be spread that his brother, Edward IV., had been born in adultery, and made no scruple of thus dis¬ honoring the memory of his mother. Indeed it was hardly possible to think that the same person should be father of Edward IV. and Gloucester. The first was remarkably handsome, and the other deformed in all parts of his body, with an aspect as hideous as his soul was villainous.

Thus he founded his sole right to the crown on his mother’s infamy ; and in declaring himself legit¬ imate, made his nephews the issue of a bastard. Immediately after his coronation, in 1483, he sent one Tyrrel to strangle the young king and his brother in the Tower. This was known to the nation, who only murmured in secret; so much do men change with the times. Gloucester, under the name of Richard III., remained two years and a half in quiet enjoyment of the fruits of one of the most atrocious crimes that the English had ever seen per¬ petrated amongst themselves, though used to many.

During this short enjoyment of the royal author¬ ity, he called a parliament, to which he had the audaciousness to submit his claim to be examined. There are times in which the people are dastardly, in proportion as their rulers are cruel ; this parlia¬ ment declared the mother of Richard III. an adul-

160 Ancient and Modern History.

teress ; and that neither the late Edward IV. nor his brothers, Richard only excepted, were born in lawful wedlock; and therefore that the crown of right belonged to him, in preference to the two young princes who had been strangled in the Tower, concerning whose deaths, however, they came to no explanation. Parliaments have sometimes com¬ mitted more cruel actions, but never any one so infamous. So vile a condescension requires whole ages of virtuous conduct to make amends for it.

At length, after two years and a half had elapsed, there arose an avenger of these crimes in the person of Henry, earl of Richmond, who was the only remaining branch of the many princes of the house of Lancaster, that had fallen sacrifices to the ambi¬ tion of the York faction, and who had taken refuge in Brittany. This young prince was not a descend¬ ant of Henry VI., but derived, like him, his pedi¬ gree from John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, son of the great Edward III., though by the female side, and from a very doubtful marriage of this John of Gaunt. His right to the crown was also still more doubtful; but the general detestation in which Richard III. was held, on account of his crimes, fortified his claim, and added strength to his party. He was as yet very young when he conceived the design of avenging the deaths of so many princes of the house of Lancaster, by punish¬ ing Richard, and reducing England to his obedi¬ ence. His first attempt proved unsuccessful, and,

Edward IV.- Richard III.

261

after having been witness to the defeat of his party, he was obliged to return to Brittany and sue for an asylum. Richard treated in secret with the minister of Francis II., duke of Brittany, father of Anne of Brittany, who was married to Charles VIII. and Louis XII. This prince himself was not capable of doing a base action ; but his minister, Landois, was, and promised to deliver the earl of Richmond into the tyrant’s hands. The young prince, coming to the knowledge of this, fled out of Brittany in dis¬ guise, and got into the territories of Anjou only an hour before those who were sent to seize him.

It was to the interest of Charles VIII., at that time king of France, to protect Richmond. The grandson of Charles VII. had been wanting in the principal point of politics, by suffering the English to remain unmolested when it was in his power to distress them ; and on this occasion Charles VIII. furnished Richmond with only two thousand men. These would have been sufficient had Richmond’s party been considerable : this however was the case soon after, and Richard himself, as soon as he heard that his rival was landed only with those small numbers, rightly judged that he would not be long without an army. The whole country of Wales, of which this prince was a native, took up arms in his favor, and a battle was at length fought between Richard and the earl, in 1415, at Bosworth, near Leicester. Richard wore the crown on his head during the engagement, thinking to animate his

262 Ancient and Modern History.

men by showing them that they fought for their lawful king against a rebel. But Lord Stanley, one of the tyrant’s generals, who had long beheld with horror the crown usurped by such a monster, betrayed a person so unworthy to be his sovereign, and went over to the earl with the corps he com¬ manded. Richard was possessed of courage, and that was his only virtue. When he saw the day become desperate, he furiously threw himself into the midst of his enemies, where he received a death too glorious for his deserts. His naked and mangled body was found buried under a heap of slain, and being thrown across a horse, was carried in that manner to the city of Leicester, where it remained two days exposed to the view of the populace, who, calling to mind his many cruelties and crimes, showed no signs of sorrow for his fate. Stanley, who had taken the crown from his head after he had fallen in the field, carried it to Henry of Rich¬ mond.

The victors sang “Te Deitm” on the field of battle. When it was over, the whole army, as inspired with one voice, cried out, “ Long live Henry of Richmond, our king.” Thus did the fortune of this single day put a happy end to the desolations with which the factions of the white and red roses had filled England ; and the throne, which had been so often stained with blood and undergone such frequent changes, was at length settled in peace and security. The misfortunes which had followed the

Edward IV.- Richard III. 263

family of Edward III. were now at an end; and Henry VII., by marrying a daughter of Edward IV., united the rights of the two houses of York and Lancaster in his own person.

As he had known how to conquer, so he knew how to govern ; and his reign, which lasted for twenty-four years, during which time he was almost constantly at peace, somewhat humanized the man¬ ners of the nation. The parliaments which he fre¬ quently called, and with whom he always kept fair, enacted wise laws; justice once more resumed all her functions, and trade, which had begun first to flourish under the great Edward III., and which had been almost entirely ruined during the civil wars, was again revived. Of this the nation stood greatly in need. We may judge of its poverty by the extreme difficulty which Henry VII. found in raising a loan of two thousand pounds sterling from the city of London, a sum which did not amount to fifty thousand livres of our present money. Henry was, through inclination and necessity, avaricious. Had he been only saving he would have showed his prudence ; but the sordidness of his disposition, and his rapacious exactions have tarnished the glory of his reign. He kept a private register of what he gained by the confiscations of estates; in short, no king was ever guilty of more meanness. At his death there were found in his coffers two mil¬ lions of pounds sterling, an immense sum for those times, which might have been much more usefully

264 Ancient ana Modern History.

employed in public circulation than in lying buried in a prince’s treasury; but in a country where the people were more inclined to raise seditions than to give money to their kings, it was necessary for a prince to have a treasure always at hand.

Two adventures, each extraordinary in its kind, rather disquieted than troubled his reign. A jour¬ neyman baker, who called himself the nephew of Edward IV., disputed the crown with him. This person, who had been trained up in his part by a priest, was crowned king at Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and ventured to give Henry battle near Nottingham, in 1487; who, having defeated him and taken him prisoner, thought to humble the revolters sufficiently by making their sham king one of the scullions in his kitchen, in which post he continued for many years.

Daring enterprises, though attended with ill suc¬ cess, frequently encourage others to imitate them, who, stirred up by the glory of the example, go on in hopes of meeting with better success : witness the six false Demetriuses, who rose, one after another, in Muscovy, and many other impostors. This journeyman baker was followed by the son of a Jew broker of Antwerp, who appeared in a more exalted character.

This young Jew, whose name was Perkin, pre¬ tended to be the son of Edward IV. The French king, who was always attentive to cherish the seeds of sedition among the English, received this pre-

Edward IV- Richard III. 265

tender at his court, acknowledged his assumed title, and gave him all encouragement: but having soon after reasons to keep fair with Henry, he left the impostor to shift for himself.

The old duchess dowager of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. and widow of Charles the Bold, who first put this spring in play, now received Perkin as her nephew. The young Jew enjoyed the fruits of his imposture much longer than his predecessor, the baker; a majestic air, a finished breeding, and great personal courage, seemed to make him worthy of the rank he assumed. He married a princess of the house of York, who still continued to love him, even after the discovery of the cheat. He maintained his claim by arms for five years, found means to raise the Scotch in his favor, and met with unexpected resources even in the midst of his defeats. But being at length abandoned by his party, and delivered up to the king, Henry had the clemency to condemn him only to perpetual impris¬ onment, from which in attempting to make his escape, he was seized, and paid for his rashness with his life.

And now the spirit of faction being entirely quelled among the English, that people, no longer formidable to their prince, began to be so to their neighbors, particularly at the accession of Henry VIII. to the throne, who, by the extreme parsimony of his father, was in possession of immense riches, and, by the prudence of the administration, the

166 Ancient and Modern History.

absolute master of a warlike people, who were at the same time in as much subjection as the English are capable of being.

CHAPTER XCVII.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

The beginning of the sixteenth century, upon which we are already entered, presents us at one view with the noblest prospects that the universe ever fur¬ nished. If we cast our eyes on the princes who reigned at that time in Europe, we shall find that either by their reputation, their conduct, or the great changes of which they were the causes, they made their names immortal. At Constantinople we see a Selim reducing under the Ottoman dominion all Syria and Egypt, of which the Mahometan Mamelukes had been in possession ever since the thirteenth century : after him appears his son, the great Solyman, the first of the Turkish emperors who carried his standards to the walls of Vienna: he also caused himself to be crowned king of Per¬ sia in the city of Bagdad, which he subdued by his arms, and thus made Europe and Asia tremble at one time.

At the same time we behold in the North, Gus- tavus Vasa rescuing Sweden from a foreign yoke, and chosen king of the country of which he was the deliverer.

In Muscovy, John Basilowitz delivers his country

General \ lew of XVI. Century. 267

from the Tartars, to whom it was tributary. This prince was indeed himself a barbarian, and the chief of a people yet more barbarous ; but the avenger of his country merits to be ranked in the number of great princes.

In Spain, Germany, and Italy, we see Charles V., the sovereign of all those states, supporting the weight of the government of Europe, always in action, and always negotiating, for a long time equally fortunate in politics and war, the only pow¬ erful emperor since Charlemagne, and the first king of all Spain since the conquest of that country by the Moors; opposing a barrier to the Ottoman Empire, making kings, and at length divesting him¬ self of all his crowns, retiring from the world, and ending his life in solitude, after having been the disturber of all Europe.

Next stands forth his rival in glory and politics, Francis I., king of France, who, though less power¬ ful and fortunate, but of a more brave and amiable disposition, divides with Charles V. the admiration and esteem of all nations. Glorious even in the midst of his defeats, he renders his kingdom flour¬ ishing, notwithstanding his misfortunes, and trans¬ plants the liberal arts into France from Italy, where they were then in the height of perfection.

Henry VIII., king of England, though too cruel and capricious to be admitted among the rank of heroes, has still a place among these kings, both on account of the change he wrought in the spirit

268 Ancient and Modern History.

of his people, and by having taught England how to hold the balance of power between sovereigns. This prince took for his device a warrior bending his bow, with these words: “Whom I defend is victorious ” — a device which his nation has at certain times verified.

Pope Leo X. is a name justly famous for the noble genius and amiable manners of him who bore it, for the great masters in the arts which have immortalized the age he lived in, and for the great change which divided the Church during his pontif¬ icate.

In the beginning of this same century we find religion, and the pretext of reforming the received law, those two grand instruments of ambition, pro¬ ducing the same effects on the borders of Africa and in Germany, and among the Turks and the Christians. A new government and a new race of kings were established in the vast empire of Fez and Morocco, which extends as far as the deserts of Nigritia. Thus Asia, Africa, and Europe under¬ went at one and the same time a change of relig¬ ions ; for the Persians were separated forever from the Turks, and while they ackowledged the same god and the same prophet, confirmed the schism of Omar and Ali. Immediately afterward the Chris¬ tians became divided among themselves, and wrested one-half of Europe from the Roman pontiff.

The old world was shaken, and the new one dis¬ covered and conquered by Charles V., and a trade

CHARLES

V. AND PIZARRO

/

I

/

General View of XVI. Century. 269

opened between the East Indies and Europe by the ships and arms of the Portuguese.

We behold on one side the powerful empire of Mexico subdued by Cortes, and the Pizarros making the conquest of Peru with fewer soldiers than is necessary to lay siege to a small town in Europe; and on the other, Albuquerque, with a force very little superior, fixing the empire and trade of the Portuguese in the Indies, in spite of all the opposi¬ tion of the kings of that country, and the efforts of the Moors, who were in possession of its trade.

Nature at this time produced extraordinary men in almost all branches, especially in Italy.

Another striking object in this illustrious age is, that, notwithstanding the wars which ambition raised, and the religious quarrels which began to disturb several states, the same genius which made the polite arts flourish at Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, and Ferrara, and which thence diffused its light throughout Europe, quickly softened the manners of mankind in almost all the provinces of Christendom. The gallantry of the French court in the reign of Francis I. operated partly toward this great change ; there was a continual emula¬ tion between this prince and Charles V. for glory, the spirit of chivalry and courtesy, even in the midst of their most furious dissensions ; and this emula¬ tion, which communicated itself to all their courtiers, gave this age an air of grandeur and politeness unknown before.

270 Ancient and Modern History.

Opulence had also a share in this change ; and this opulence, which became more general, was, by a strange revolution, partly the consequence of the fatal loss of Constantinople; for soon afterward all the trade of the Turks was carried on by the Christians, who sold them even the spices of the Indies, which they took in at Alexandria, and car¬ ried in their ships to all the ports of the Levant.

Industry was everywhere encouraged. The city of Marseilles carried on a great trade. Lyons abounded in fine manufactures. The towns of the Low Countries were still more flourishing than when they were under the house of Burgundy. The ladies, who were invited to the court of France, made it the centre of magnificence and politeness. The manners of the court of London were indeed more rude, by reason of the capricious and rough disposition of its king, but that city already began to grow rich by trade.

In Germany the cities of Augsburg and Nurem¬ berg, which dispersed through that empire the riches they drew from Venice, began already to feel the good effects of their correspondence with the Italians. In the former of these cities there were a number of beautiful houses adorned on the outsides with paint¬ ings in fresco, after the Venetian manner. In a word, Europe saw halcyon days appear; but they were troubled by the storms which the rivalship between Charles V. and Francis I. excited, and the disputes which now began to arise about religion

State of Europe. 271

sullied the end of this century, and even rendered it terrible, by giving it a certain cast of barbarism, scarcely known to the Huns and Heruli.

CHAPTER XCVIII.

EUROPE IN THE TIME OF CHARLES V. OF MUSCOVY, OR RUSSIA - A DIGRESSION CONCERNING LAPLAND.

Before I take a view of the state of Europe under Charles V., it will be necessary to form to myself a sketch of the different governments into which it was divided. I have already shown the state of Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and England. I shall not speak of Turkey, and the conquests of the Ottomans in Syria and Africa till I have first exam¬ ined all the wonderful and fatal events which hap¬ pened among the Christians ; and have followed the Portuguese in the several voyages they made to Asia, and the military trade they carried on in that country, and have taken a view of the eastern world.

I shall begin at present with the Christian king¬ doms of the North. The Russian or Muscovite state began at this time to put on some form. This state, which is so powerful, and is every day becoming more so, was for a long time only a tribe of half- Christian savages, slaves to the Kazan-Tartars, the descendants of Tamerlane.

The duke of Russia paid a yearly tribute in money, skins, and cattle to these Tartars, which he him¬ self carried on foot to the Tartarian ambassador,

272 Ancient and Modern History.

appointed to receive them, prostrating himself at his feet, and presenting him with milk to drink ; and if any part of it fell upon the neck of the ambas¬ sador’s horse, the duke was obliged to lick it off. The Russians were on the one hand slaves to the Tartars; and, on the the other, pressed by the people of Lithuania : and, on the side of the Ukraine again, they were exposed to the depredations of the Crim-Tartars, descendants from the ancient Scyth¬ ians of Taurica Chersonesus, to whom they also paid a tribute. At length there arose a chief, named John Basilides, or the son of Basil, who, being a person of great courage, animated his dastardly Russians, and freed himself from so servile a yoke ; adding, at the same time, to his dominions, Novgo¬ rod and the city of Moscow, which he took from the Lithuanians toward the end of the fifteenth century. He extended his conquests as far as Finland, which country has frequently been the subject of ruptures between Russia and Sweden.

Russia, then, appears to have been at that time a large monarchy, though not as yet formidable to Europe. It is said that John Basilides brought back with him from Moscow three hundred wagons loaded with gold, silver, and precious stones. The history of these dark times is wholly composed of fables. Neither the inhabitants of Moscow, nor the Tartars, had at that time any money but what they had plundered from others ; and as they had so long been a prey to the Tartars, what great riches could

State of Europe. 2,73

be found among them ? They were acquainted with little more than the mere necessaries of life.

The country about Moscow produces good corn, which is sown in May and reaped in September. The earth bears some few fruits : honey is as plenty there as in Poland, and they have large and small cattle in abundance ; but the wool being unfit for manufacturing, and the people in themselves rude and void of industry, the only clothing used amongst them was the skins of beasts. There was not one house in the city of Moscow built of stone. The little wooden huts they lived in were made of the trunks of trees, covered with moss. As to their manners, they lived like brutes, having a confused idea of the religion of the Greek Church, of which they thought themselves members. When they died, the priest who buried them put into the hand of the dead person a note addressed to St. Peter and St. Nicholas. This was their principal act of relig¬ ion ; but in almost all the villages to the northeast of Moscow, the inhabitants were in general idol¬ aters.

The czars who succeeded John Basilides were possessed of riches, especially after another John Basilowitz had, in 1551, taken Cazan and Astrakhan from the Tartars: but the Russians themselves were always poor; for as these absolute sovereigns had almost all the trade of their empire in their own hands, and raised contributions from those who had

gained a small competency, they quickly filled their

Vol. 26 — 18

274 Ancient and Modern History.

own coffers, and even displayed an Asiatic pomp and luxury on their festivals and solemn days. They traded to Constantinople, by the way of the Black Sea; and with Poland by Novgorod. They had it therefore in their power to civilize their subjects ; but the time was not yet come. All the northern part of their empire beyond Moscow consisted in vast wilds, and some few settlements of savages. They were even ignorant that there was such a large country as Siberia. A Cossack first discovered and conquered it in the reign of this John Basilowitz, in the same manner as Cortes conquered Mexico, with a few firearms only.

The czars had very little share in the affairs of Europe, except in some wars with the Swedes on account of Finland. None of the inhabitants ever stirred out of the country, nor engaged in any mar¬ itime trade. The very port of Archangel was at that time as much unknown as those of America, and was not discovered till the year 1553, by the English, who were in search of new countries in the North, after the example of the Spaniards and Portuguese, who had made several new settlements in the South, the East, and the West. It was necessary to pass the North Cape, at the extremity of Lapland. It was known by experience that there was a country where, during five months of the year, the sun never rose above the horizon. In this attempt the crews of two ships perished with cold and other disorders on this coast. A third ship,

State of Europe. 275

commanded by one Chancellor, anchored in the port of Archangel, in the river Dwina, the borders of which were inhabited only by savages. Chancellor tailed up the Dwina to Moscow. The English after this were almost the only masters of the trade of Muscovy, and gained great riches by the furs they brought from there ; and this was another branch of trade taken from the Venetians. This republic had formerly had markets, and even a town, on the borders of the Tanais, and afterward carried on a trade for furs with Constantinople. Whoever reads history with any advantage, will see that there have been as many revolutions in trade as in states.

It was very improbable at that time that a prince of Russia should one day found, in the marshes at the bottom of the Gulf of Finland, a capital, in whose port there arrives every year nearly two hundred and fifty foreign ships, and which has sent forth armies to fix a king on the the throne of Poland, assist the German Empire against France, become masters of Crimea, and divest Sweden of part of its terri¬ tories.

About this time Lapland began to be more par¬ ticularly known, to which even the Swedes, the Danes, and the Russians had hitherto been in a manner strangers. This vast country, which borders on the north pole, had been described by Strabo, under the name of the country of the Trog¬ lodytes, and Northern Pygmies. We have learnt that the race of Pygmies were not fictitious beings.

\

276 Ancient and Modern History.

It is probable that the Northern Pygmies have become extinct, or have been all destroyed by the neighboring nations. Several kinds of men have disappeared from the face of the earth, as well as several kinds of animals.

The Laplanders do not appear in the least to resemble their neighbors ; for example, the men of Norway are large and well made : whereas, Lapland produces no men taller than three cubits ; their eyes, ears, and noses, again, are different from those of all the other people who surround them. They seem to be a species formed purposely for the cli¬ mate they inhabit, which they themselves are delighted with, and which none but themselves can like. Nature seems to have produced the Lap¬ landers, as she has done the reindeer, peculiarly for that country : and as these animals are found nowhere else in the world, so neither do the people appear to have come from any other part. It is not probable that the inhabitants of countries less sav¬ age would have passed over the most frightful deserts, covered with perpetual snows, to transplant themselves into so barren a part of the globe. One family may have been cast by a tempest upon a desert island, and have peopled this island ; but no number of people would quit their habitations on the continent, where they were provided with some kind of nourishment, to settle themselves in a remote part, amidst rocks covered with moss, and where they could meet with no other subsistence than fish

State of Europe. 2,77

and the milk of reindeers : besides, supposing people from Norway or Sweden to have transplanted them¬ selves into Lapland, could they possibly have become so entirely changed in figure? How happens it that the Icelanders, who dwell as far northward as the Laplanders, are so tall in stature, and the Lap¬ landers, on the contrary, not only very short, but of a quite different form? These were, therefore, a new species of men who made their appearance to us at the same time that America and Asia pre¬ sented us with others. The sphere of nature now became enlarged to us on all sides ; and it is on this consideration alone that Lapland merits our attention.

I shall not take any notice of Iceland, which was the Thule of the ancients; nor of Greenland, nor yet of all those countries bordering on the pole, whither the hopes of discovering a passage into America have carried our navigators. The knowl¬ edge of these countries is as barren as the countries themselves, and does not enter into the political plan of the world.

POLAND.

Poland, which for a long time retained the man¬ ners of the Sarmatians, its first inhabitants, began to be of some consideration in Germany after the Jagellonian race came to the throne; and was no longer the same country which was wont to receive its kings at the emperor’s will, and pay him tribute.

278 Ancient and Modern History.

The first of the Jagellon family was chosen king of this republic in the year 1382. He was duke of Lithuania, and was an idolater, as well as the rest of his countrymen, and a great part of the palatinate. He was made king upon a promise of becoming Christian, and incorporating Lithuania with Poland.

This Jagellon, who took the name of Ladislaus, was father of the unfortunate Ladislaus who was king of Hungary and Poland, and formed to be one of the most powerful monarchs in the world, had he not unfortunately been defeated and slain in 1445, at the battle of Varna, which, at the instigation of Cardinal Julian, he fought against the Turks, in defiance of his faith solemnly plighted.

The Turks and the monkish knights of the Teu¬ tonic Order were a long time the two great enemies of Poland. The latter, who had formed themselves into a crusade, not being able to succeed in their attempts against the Mahometans, fell upon the idolatrous and the Christian inhabitants of Prussia, which was then a province belonging to the Poles.

During the reign of Casimir, in the fifteenth cen¬ tury, the Teutonic Knights waged a long war with Poland ; and at length divided Prussia with this state, on condition that the grand master of their order should be a vassal of this kingdom, and, at the same time, a prince palatine and have a seat in the diet.

At this time the palatines had votes only in the

State of Europe. 279

estates of the kingdom ; but Casimir summoned dep¬ uties from the body of the nobility, in the year 1640, who have ever since maintained this privilege.

The nobles then had another privilege in common with that of the palatines, which was that of not being subject to arrest for any crime before they were juridically convicted: this was a kind of right of impunity. They had besides the right of life and death over their peasants, whom they might put to death with impunity, provided they threw the value of ten crowns into the grave : and if a Polish nobleman killed a peasant belonging to another nobleman, he was by the laws of honor obliged to give him another in his room ; and, to the disgrace of human nature, this horrid privilege still subsists.

Sigismund, who was of the Jagellonian race, and died in 1548, was contemporary with Charles V., and was esteemed a great prince. During his reign the Poles had several wars with the Muscovites, and with the Teutonic Knights, while Albert of Brandenburg was their grand master. But war was all the Poles knew, without being acquainted with the military art; which was first carried to perfection in the southern parts of Europe. They fought in a confused and disorderly manner; they had no fortified places; and their chief strength consisted, as it still does, in their cavalry.

They wholly neglected trade; nor did they dis¬ cover, till the thirteenth century, the salt pits of Cracow, which now constitute the chief wealth of

280 Ancient and Modern History.

the country. The corn and salt trade was left to Jews, and other foreigners, who grew rich by the proud indolence of the nobles and the slavery of the people. There were at that time in Poland no less than two hundred Jewish synagogues.

If we consider the government of this country, it will appear, in some respects, an image of the ancient government of the Franks, Muscovites, and Huns ; and, in others, somewhat to resemble that of the ancient Romans, inasmuch as the nobles, like the tribunes of the Roman people, could oppose the passing of any law in the senate by simply pro¬ nouncing the word “Veto.” This power, which extended even to all the gentlemen, and was carried so far as to give a right of annulling, by a single vote, all the other votes of the republic, has now become a kind of right of anarchy. The tribune was the magistrate of the people of Rome ; whereas a gentleman in Poland is only a member and a sub¬ ject of the state, and this member has the peculiar privilege of disturbing the whole body ; but so dear is this privilege to self-love, that, if anyone should attempt to propose in the diet an abolition of this custom, he would be certain of being torn in pieces.

In Poland, as well as in Sweden, in Denmark, and throughout the whole North, the only distin¬ guishing title was that of “ noble.” The dignities of duke and count are of a later date, and are derived from the Germans ; but these titles confer no power. The nobles are all upon an equality. The

28 I

State of Europe.

palatines, who deprived the people of their liberty, were wholly employed in defending their own against their kings ; and, notwithstanding the Jagel- lon family were so long in possession of the throne, its princes were never either absolute in their roy¬ alty, nor even kings by right of birth, but were always chosen as chiefs of the state, and not as masters. In the oath taken by these kings, at their coronation, they expressly desired the nation to dethrone them if they did not observe those laws they had sworn to maintain.

It was no easy matter to preserve the right of election always free, and still continue the same family on the throne : but the kings having no strongholds in their possession, nor the manage¬ ment of the public treasury, nor the army, could not make any attack upon the liberties of the nation. The state allowed the king a yearly revenue of about twelve hundred thousand livres of our money for the support of his dignity, which is more than the king of Sweden has to this day ; the emperor has no allowance, but is obliged to support, at his own expense, the dignity of Head of the Christian World, Caput Orbis Christiani; while the islands of Great Britain give their king nearly twenty-three millions for his civil list. The sale of the kingly office is now in Poland one of the principal sources of the money which circulates in that kingdom. The capitation tax levied on the Jews, which is one of its largest revenues, does not amount to

282 Ancient and Modern History.

above one hundred and twenty thousand florins of the coin of the country.

With regard to the laws, the Poles had no written code in their own language, till the year 1552. The nobles, who were always of equal rank with each other, were governed by the resolutions taken in their assemblies, which is at present the only real law among them ; and the rest of the nation are guided only by these resolutions. As these nobles are the only possessors of lands, they are masters of all the rest of the people, and the husbandmen are no other than their slaves : they are also in possession of all the church benefices. It is the same in Germany; but this is an express and general law in Poland; whereas, in Germany, it is only an established custom ; indeed, a custom greatly repug¬ nant to Christianity, though agreeable to the spirit of the Germanic constitution. Rome, in all its dif¬ ferent forms of government, from the times of its kings and consuls to the papal monarchy, has always enjoyed this advantage, that the door to honors and dignities was always open to pure merit.

SWEDEN AND DENMARK.

The kingdoms of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were, like that of Poland, elective. The peasants and artificers were slaves in Norway and Denmark ; but in Sweden they had a seat in the diets of the state, and gave their vote in the imposition of taxes.

283

State of Europe.

Never did two neighboring nations entertain a more violent antipathy to each other than the Swedes and Danes ; and yet these rival people formed only one state in the famous Union of Calmar, at the end of the fourteenth century.

One of the Swedish kings, named Albert, having attempted to appropriate a third of the farms in the kingdom to his own use, his subjects revolted against him. Margaret of Waldemar, queen of Denmark, who was called the Semiramis of the North, took advantage of these troubles, and got herself acknowl¬ edged queen of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, in the year 1395. Two years afterward she united these two kingdoms, which ought always to have continued under the dominion of one single sov¬ ereign.

When we recollect that formerly the Danish pirates alone carried their victorious arms through¬ out the greater part of Europe, and conquered Eng¬ land and Normandy, and afterward see that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, though united, were not a formidable power to their neighbors, we may evi¬ dently conclude that conquests are only to be made among an ill-governed people. The Hanse towns of Hamburg, Liibeck, Dantzic, Rostock, Liine- burg, and Wismar alone were able to resist the power of these three kingdoms, on account of their superior riches ; and the single city of Liibeck car¬ ried on a war against the successors of Margaret of Waldemar. This union of the three kingdoms,

284 Ancient and Modern History.

which appeared so fair at first sight, proved in the end the source of all their misfortunes.

There was in Sweden a primate who was arch¬ bishop of Upsala, and six bishops who had almost the same authority in that country which most of the great ecclesiastics had acquired in Germany and other nations, especially the archbishop of Upsala, who was, like the primate of Poland, the second person in the kingdom. Whosoever is the second person in a state is always desirous of being the first.

It happened in the year 1452 that the estates of Sweden, tired of the Danish yoke, chose with one consent the grand marshal, Charles Canutson, for their king, and being equally weary of the power of the bishops, they ordered a perquisition to be made into the estates which the Church had engrossed under favor of these troubles. The archbishop of Upsala, named John de Salstad, assisted by the six bishops of Sweden and the rest of the clergv, excommunicated the king and the senate at high mass, laid his ornaments upon the altar, and putting on a coat of mail, and taking a sword in his hand, quitted the church, and began a civil war, which the bishops afterward continued for seven years. After this there was nothing but the most bloody anarchy, and a perpetual war between the Swedes, who wanted an independent king, and the Danes; the latter of which almost always gained the mas¬ tery. The clergy, who were at one time in arms for their country, and at another against it, recipro-

State of Europe. 285

cally excommunicated, fought with, and plundered one another.

At length the Danes, having gained the mastery, under the command of their king, John, son of Christian I., and the Swedes being subdued, and having afterward revolted again, this King John caused his senate in Denmark to publish an arret against that of Sweden, by which all the members of that senate were condemned to lose their nobility and forfeit their estates. What is very singular is, that he caused this arret to be confirmed by the emperor Maximilian, and that this emperor wrote to the estates of Sweden in 1505, telling them that they were to pay obedience to that ordinance, or else he would proceed against them according to the laws of the empire. I do not know how Abbe Vertot, in his “ Revolutions of Sweden,” came to forget so important a transaction, which Puffen- dorf has so carefully preserved.

This fact is a plain proof that both the German emperors and the popes have always pretended to a universal jurisdiction. It also proves that the Danish king was willing to flatter Maximilian, whose daughter he afterward obtained for his son, Chris¬ tian II. In this manner were rights established in those days. Maximilian’s council wrote to the Swedes in the same manner as that of Charlemagne had done to the people of Benevento and Guienne : but he wanted the same number of forces and equal power with Charlemagne.

286 Ancient and Modern History.

This Christian II., after the death of his father, took very different steps. Instead of applying to the imperial chamber for an arret, he obtained four thousand men of Francis I., king of France. Before this time the French had never engaged in any of the quarrels of the North. It is probable that Francis I., who aspired to the imperial dignity, was willing to gain a support in Denmark. The French troops fought several battles against the Swedes, under Christian, but were very badly recompensed for their services, being sent home without pay, and set upon in their return by the peasants, so that not more than three hundred men returned alive to France, the usual fate of all expeditions sent too far from their own country.

We shall see what a tyrant this Christian was, when we come to the article on “ Lutheranism.” One of his crimes proved the cause of his punish¬ ment, in the loss of his three kingdoms. He had lately made an agreement with an administrator created by the estates of Sweden, whose name was Sten Sture ; but he seemed to fear this administrator less than he did the young Gustavus Vasa, nephew of King Canutson, a prince of the most enterprising courage, and the hero and idol of the Swedes ; and pretending to be desirous of having a conference with the administrator in Stockholm, demanded of him, at the same time, to bring with him on board his fleet, then lying in the road, the young Gustavus, with six other noblemen as hostages. As soon as

287

State of Europe.

they were on board he put them in irons, and made sail to Denmark with his prize. After this he made preparations for an open war, in which Rome took part. We will now see how she came to enter into it, and in what manner she was deceived.

Trolle, archbishop of Upsala — whose cruelties I shall relate when I come to speak of Lutheranism — who had been chosen primate by the clergy, con¬ firmed by Pope Leo X., and was united in interest with Christian, was afterward deposed by the estates of Sweden, in 1517, and condemned to do perpetual penance in a monastery. For this the estates were excommunicated by the pope in the customary style. This excommunication, which was nothing in itself, was rendered very formidable by the power of Christian’s arms.

There was at that time in Denmark a legate from the pope, named Arcemboldi, who had sold indulgences throughout the three kingdoms. Such had been the address of this priest, or the weakness of the people, that he had raised nearly two millions of florins in these countries, though the poorest in Europe, which he was going to send over to Rome ; but Christian seized on them as a supply for the war he was carrying on against the excommunicated Danes. This war proved successful ; Christian was acknowledged king, and Archbishop Trolle was rein¬ stated in his dignity. It was after this restoration that the king and his primate gave that fatal feast

288 Ancient and Modern History.

at Stockholm, at which he caused all the members of the senate, and a great many citizens, to be mas¬ sacred. While these things were occurring, Gus- tavus escaped from his confinement and fled into Sweden. He was obliged to conceal himself for some time in the mountains of Dalecarlia, in the dis¬ guise of a peasant. He even worked in the mines, either for his subsistence, or to better conceal him¬ self : but at length he made himself known to these savage people, who, being from their rustic sim¬ plicity utter strangers to politics, held tyranny in the most detestable light. They agreed to follow him, and Gustavus soon saw himself at the head of an army. The use of firearms was not then at all known to these rude men, and but imperfectly to the Swedes.- This always threw the victory on the side of the Danes ; but Gustavus, having bought a number of muskets upon his own account, at Liibeck, soon engaged them upon an equality.

Liibeck not only furnished him with arms, but it likewise sent him troops, without which Gustavus could not have succeeded ; so that the fate of Sweden depended on a simple trading city. Christian was at that time in Denmark, and the archbishop of Upsala sustained the whole weight of the war against this deliverer of his country. At length, by an event not very common, the party which had justice on its side prevailed; and Gustavus, after several unsuc¬ cessful attempts, beat the tyrant’s lieutenants, and remained master of part of the country.

State of Europe. 289

1521 — Christian, grown furious by this disgrace, committed an action which, even after what we have already seen of him, appears an almost incredible piece of wickedness. He for a long time had the mother and sister of Gustavus in his power at Copen¬ hagen, and now ordered these two princesses to be both sewed up in a sack, and thrown alive into the sea.

Though this tyrant was so well skilled in working his revenge, he did not know how to fight; and while he could murder two defenceless women, he did not dare to venture into Sweden to face Gusta¬ vus. At length the cruelties he had exercised upon his subjects, in common with his enemies, rendered him as detestable to the people of Copenhagen as to the Swedes.

As the Danes had the power of electing their kings, so they also had of punishing a tyrant. The first who renounced his authority were the peo- ple of Jutland, or the duchy of Schleswig. His uncle, Frederick, duke of Holstein, took advantage of this just insurrection of the people, and, right being supported by force, all the inhabitants of that part which formerly composed Chersonesus Cim- brica deputed the chief justice of Jutland to signify to the tyrant the sentence of deposition.

This intrepid magistrate had the resolution to carry the sentence to Christian in the midst of Copen¬ hagen ; the tyrant, finding all the rest of his king¬ dom wavering, himself hated even by his own offi- Vol. 26 — 19

290 Ancient and Modern History.

cers, and not daring to trust anyone, received in his own palace like a criminal the sentence declared to him by a single man unarmed. The name of this magistrate deserves to be handed down to posterity : he was called Mons. “ My name,” he said, “ ought to be written over the doors of all bad princes.” The kingdom of Denmark acquiesced in the sen¬ tence, and there was never an instance of a revolu¬ tion so just and sudden, and so quietly effected. The king deposed himself in 1523 by flying the kingdom and retiring into the dominions of his brother-in-law, Charles V., in Flanders, whose assistance he long implored.

His uncle Frederick was elected at Copenhagen, king of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ; but of this last he had only the title ; for the Swedes chose Gustavus Vasa their king, who had made himself master of Stockholm about the same time and knew perfectly well how to defend the kingdom he had delivered. Christian, who, with Archbishop Trolle, was now a wanderer, made an attempt some few years afterward to get possession of some part of his dominions. He depended upon the assistance of a malcontent party in the kingdom, which is always the consequence of a new reign, and which he now found both in Sweden and Denmark: with these he entered Norway. Gustavus had introduced a change in the religion of the Swedes, and Fred¬ erick had permitted his Danes to change theirs. Christian professed himself a good Catholic, but

State of Europe.

291

was not for that either a better prince, or a better general, or more beloved ; so that in the end his enterprise proved ineffectual.

Abandoned at length by everyone, he suffered him¬ self to be carried to Denmark in the year 1532, where he ended his days in a prison. Archbishop Trolle, who, prompted by a restless ambition, had prevailed on the city of Liibeck to take up arms against the Danes, died of wounds received in battle, and concluded his life with more glory than Christian ; both of them merited a more tragical end.

Gustavus, the deliverer of his country, now enjoyed his honors in peace. He first convinced foreign nations what weight Sweden might have in the affairs of Europe, at a time when the politics of that country put on a new face, and they began to think of establishing a balance of power.

Francis I. made an alliance with him; and, not¬ withstanding that Gustavus was a Lutheran, sent him the collar of his order, though expressly against the statutes. Gustavus spent the remainder of his life in endeavoring to regulate his kingdom. It required all the prudence he was master of to secure his administration against the troubles likely to arise on account of the change he had made in religion. The Dalecarlians, who had been the first to assist him in mounting the throne, were the first to raise commotions. Their savage rusticity rendered them attached to the ancient customs of their church ; and

ig2 Ancient and Modern History.

they were Catholics in the same manner as they were barbarians, by birth and education, as may be con¬ ceived from a petition which they presented to him, wherein they desired the king would not wear any clothes made after the French fashion ; and would order all those to be burned, who ate meat on a Friday: this last article was almost the only one in which the Lutherans were distinguished from the Catholics.

The king suppressed these first emotions, and established his religion by judiciously preserving the bishops, and at the same time diminishing their revenues and power. He showed a proper regard for the ancient laws of the kingdom, and caused his son Eric to be declared his successor, by the estates, in 1 544 ; and he even procured the crown to remain in his family, on condition that if his race should become extinct the estates should again resume their right of election ; and that if only a princess remained, she should be allowed a certain portion, without having any pretensions to the crown.

Such was the situation of affairs in the North, in the time of Charles V. The manners of all these people were simple, but austere, and their virtues were fewer, as their ignorance was greater. The titles of count, marquis, baron, and knight, and most of the other badges of vain glory had not found their way at all among the Swedes, and but very little among the Danes ; but then the most useful inventions were likewise unknown to them. They

293

State of Europe.

had no settled commerce, nor any manufactures. Gustavus Vasa, by drawing the Swedes from their state of obscurity, inspired the Danes by his example.

HUNGARY.

The constitution of this government was exactly the same as that of Poland. Its kings were elected by the diets : the palatine of Hungary had the same authority as the primate of Poland, and was more¬ over judge between the king and the nation. Such was formerly the power or privilege of the palatine of the empire, the mayor of the palace in France, and the justiciary of Aragon. We find that in all monarchies the regal power was in its beginning counterbalanced by some other.

The nobles had the same privileges as in Poland ; I mean those of being screened from all punish¬ ment, and of disposing of the lives of their peasants or bondmen. The common people were slaves. The chief forces of this kingdom consisted in the cavalry, which was formed of the nobles and their followers. The infantry was composed of peasants gathered together, without order or discipline, who took the field in sowing time, and continued in it till harvest.

We may recollect that this kingdom first embraced Christianity about the year 1000. Stephen, the chief of the Hungarians, who was desirous of being made king, employed on this occasion the force of arms and religion. Pope Sylvester II. gave him not only the title of king, but also of apostolic king. Some

294 Ancient and Modern History.

writers say that it was John XVIII. or XIX. who conferred these two honors on Stephen, in the year 1003 or 1004. Such discussions, however, have nothing to do with the end of my inquiries. I shall, therefore, content myself with observing that, on account of this title having been conferred by a bull, the popes pretend to exact a tribute from the Hungarians, and that it is in virtue of the term “ apostolic ” that the kings of Hungary claim the right to bestow all the church benefices in the king¬ dom.

We may observe that kings, and even whole nations, have been governed by certain prejudices. The chief of a warlike people did not dare to assume the title of king without the pope’s permission. This kingdom, and that of Poland likewise, were gov¬ erned on the model of the Germanic Empire ; and yet the kings of Poland and Hungary, though they made counts, had never dared to create dukes, and were so far from taking the title of majesty that they were at that time only styled, “ Your excellency.”

The emperors even looked upon Hungary as a fief of the empire, and Conrad the Salic actually received homage and tribute from King Peter ; while the popes on their side maintained that they had a right to bestow this crown, because they were the first who gave the title of king to the chief of the Hungarian nation.

And here it will be necessary to take a short retro¬ spect of those times, when the house of France,

State of Europe. n 95

which had furnished kings to Portugal, England, and Naples, also beheld one of its branches seated on the throne of Hungary.

About the year 1290, this throne being vacant, the emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg gave the investi¬ ture of it to his son, Albert of Austria, as he would bestow a common fief. Pope Nicholas IV., on his side, conferred this kingdom as a church benefice on the grandson of the famous Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, who was king of Naples and Sicily. This nephew of St. Louis was called Charles Martel, and laid claim to the kingdom because his mother, Mary of Hungary, was sister of the last deceased king of Hungary. With a free people it is not being a relative of the king that can confer a title to the throne ; and the Hungarians accepted neither the sovereign nominated by the emperor nor him whom the pope appointed for them ; but fixed upon Andrew, surnamed the Venetian, a prince who was also of the blood royal. Upon this there followed excommunications and wars; but after his death, and that of his competitor, Charles Martel, the decree of the Roman tribunal was carried into exe¬ cution.

Boniface VIII., in 1303, four months before the affront he received from the king of France, the grief for which is said to have occasioned his death, had the honor to see the cause of the house of Anjou brought before his tribunal. Mary, queen of Naples, spoke in person before the consistory ; and Boniface

296 Ancient and Modern History.

bestowed Hungary on Prince Charles Robert of Anjou, son of Charles Martel, and grandson of this Mary.

1308 — This Charles Robert was in fact king by the pope’s favor, and maintained upon the throne by his interest and his sword. The kingdom of Hun¬ gary became more powerful under him than the emperors, who looked upon it as one of their fiefs. He annexed to his kingdom the provinces of Dal¬ matia, Croatia, Servia, Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia, which had been rent from it at different times.

His son, Louis, brother to that Andrew, king of Hungary, whom his wife, Joan of Naples, caused to be strangled, still further increased the Hungarian power. He went to Naples to avenge his brother’s murder, and assisted Charles Durazzo to dethrone Queen Joan, but without being in any way instru¬ mental in the cruel manner in which Durazzo caused that unhappy princess to be put to death. After his return to Hungary he acquired true glory, by doing justice to his people, enacting wise laws, and abol¬ ishing the custom of trial by ordeal, which was always in the greatest credit when the people were most civilized.

We have all along observed that there never was a truly great man who was not a lover of letters. This prince cultivated geometry and astronomy, and countenanced the other arts : it is to this philosophic genius, so rare at that time, that we are to attribute

297

State of Europe.

the abolition of those superstitious trials. A king who was master of sound reasoning was a prodigy in those countries. His courage was equal to his other qualifications : he was beloved by his own subjects, and admired by strangers. Toward the latter part of his life, in 1370, the Poles made choice of him for their king: he reigned happily in Hun¬ gary forty years, and in Poland twelve years. His people gave him the surname of the Great, which he well deserved ; and yet this prince is hardly known in Europe, because he did not reign over men capable of transmitting his fame and virtues to other nations. How few know that in the fourteenth century there was a Louis the Great in the Carpa¬ thian mountains !

He was so much beloved that the estates, in 1382, bestowed the crown on his daughter Mary, not then marriageable, by the title of King Mary, a title which has in our time been renewed in favor of a daughter of the last emperor of the house of Austria.

This all serves to show that if in hereditary king¬ doms the people sometimes find reason to complain of a despotic abuse of the supreme power, elective states are on their part exposed to still more violent storms, and that even liberty itself, which is so natu¬ ral and inestimable a blessing, is sometimes pro¬ ductive of great misfortunes.

Young King Mary and her kingdom were both under the government of her mother, Elizabeth of Bosnia, who, being disagreeable to the grandees,

298 Ancient and Modern History.

they made use of their right, and placed the crown on another head, making Charles Durazzo, surnamed the Little, king; who was descended in a direct line from St. Louis’s brother, who reigned in the two Sicilies. Charles arrived at Naples, from Buda, and was solemnly crowned in 1386, and acknowledged king by Elizabeth herself.

We now come to one of those strange events with regard to which the laws are wholly silent, and leave us in doubt whether it may not be a crime even to punish vice.

Elizabeth and her daughter Mary, after having lived in as good correspondence with Durazzo as it was possible to do with a person who was in pos¬ session of their crown, invited him to their apart¬ ment, where they caused him to be murdered in their presence ; after which they prevailed on the people to join them, and young Mary, who was still directed by her mother, resumed the crown.

Some time afterward Elizabeth and Mary made a journey into Lower Hungary, and on their way imprudently passed through the lands of the count of Hornac, who was ban of Croatia. This ban was what they call in Hungary a supreme count, who has the command of armies, and the executing of justice. This nobleman was particularly attached to the murdered king; was it then, or was it not, law¬ ful for him to avenge the death of his king? He soon came to a resolution, and seemed to consult only justice in the cruelty of his revenge ; he caused

State of Europe. 299

the two queens to be tried, after which he ordered Elizabeth to be drowned, and kept Mary in prison, as the less guilty of the two.

At the same time Sigismund, who was afterward emperor, entered Hungary, and espoused Queen Mary. Ihe ban of Croatia, who thought himself sufficiently powerful, had the boldness to carry that princess himself to Sigismund, after having drowned her mother, thinking, as we may suppose, that he had done only an act of severe justice; but Sigis¬ mund ordered his flesh to be torn off with red-hot pincers, and he died in the most dreadful torments. His death caused an insurrection of the nobles of Hungary ; and this whole reign was one continued succession of troubles and factions.

It is possible to reign over a great number of states, and yet not be a powerful prince ; this Sigis¬ mund was, at one and the same time, emperor, and king of Bohemia and Hungary : but in Hungary he was beaten by the Turks, and once confined in prison by his subjects, who had revolted against him. In Bohemia he was almost continually at war with the Hussites ; and in the empire his authority was almost always counterbalanced by the prerogatives of the grandees, and the privileges of the great cities.

In 1438 Albert of Austria, son-in-law of Sigis¬ mund, was the first prince of the house of Austria who had reigned in Hungary.

This Albert was, like Sigismund, both emperor and king of Bohemia, but he did not reign above

300 Ancient and Modern History.

three years; and this short reign was the cause of intestine divisions, which, together with the irrup¬ tion of the Turks, depopulated Hungary, and made it one of the most miserable countries in the world.

The Hungarians, who always preserved their lib¬ erty, would not accept for their king a child which Albert of Austria left at his death, but chose Ulad- islaus, or Ladislaus, king of Poland, who, in 1444, lost the famous battle of Varna, together with his life, as has been before related.

Frederick III. of Austria, who was emperor in 1440, took the title of King of Hungary, but never was so in reality. He kept the son of Albert of Austria, whom I shall call Ladislaus Albert, prisoner in Vienna, while John Huniades was making head in Hungary against Mahomet II., who conquered so many states. This John Huniades was not king, but he was general and idol of a free and warlike people, and no king ever possessed a more absolute power.

After his death the house of Austria had the crown of Hungary. This Ladislaus Albert was elected king, and caused one of the sons of this John LIuniades, the avenger of his country, to be put to death by the hands of the executioner : but, with a free people, tyranny never goes unpunished : Lad¬ islaus was driven from a throne which he had stained with such illustrious blood, and paid for his cruelty by perpetual exile.

There still remained a son of the great Huniades :

3OT

State of Europe.

this was Matthias Corvinus, whom the Hungarians, with great difficulty, and not without paying a large sum of money, rescued out of the hands of the house of Austria. This prince waged war with the emperor Frederick III. and the Turk, from the former of whom he took Austria, and drove the latter out of Upper Hungary.

After his death, which happened in 1490, the house of Austria was continually endeavoring to add Hungary to its other dominions. The emperor Maximilian, even though he had again entered Vienna, could not obtain this kingdom, which was bestowed upon another Ladislaus, a king of Bohemia, whom I shall call Ladislaus of Bohemia.

The Hungarians, after the example of the nobles of Poland, and the electors of the empire, in thus choosing their own kings, always limited the royal authority; but it must be acknowledged that the Hungarian nobles were petty tyrants, who would not suffer a greater tyrant over them ; their liberty was no other than a fatal independency, and they reduced the rest of the nation to such a wretched state of slavery that the peasants and common peo¬ ple, being unable longer to support such continual oppressions, took up arms against these cruel mas¬ ters ; and a civil war, which lasted four years, still further weakened this unhappy kingdom. At length the nobles, being better provided with arms and money than the peasants, gained the mastery; and this war ended in redoubled miseries to the people

302 Ancient and Modern History.

who to this day continue the actual slaves of the grandees.

A country which had been so long a prey to devas¬ tation, and where there remained only a slavish and discontented people, under masters almost always at variance among themselves, was no longer able of itself to resist the arms of the Turkish sultans. Accordingly we find that when young Louis II., son of Ladislaus of Bohemia, and father-in-law of Charles V., attempted to oppose the arms of Solyman, the whole kingdom of Hungary was not able to furnish him with an army of more than thirty thousand fighting men. One Tomori, a Franciscan friar, who was general of this army, in which there were five other bishops, promised Louis the victory ; but this whole army was cut to pieces in the famous battle of Mohacs, in 1526, and the king himself slain. After this victory Solyman overran all this wretched kingdom, and carried two hundred thou¬ sand captives away with him.

Nature in vain furnished this country with gold mines, and the more substantial riches of corn and wine ; in vain she formed its inhabitants robust, well- made, and ingenious; nothing now remained to the view but a vast desert, with ruined cities, and fields tilled with sword in hand, villages dug under¬ ground, in which the inhabitants buried themselves with their provisions and cattle, and a few fortified castles, for the sovereignty of which the possessors

State of Europe. 303

were always in arms against the Turks and the Ger¬ mans.

There were likewise several other fine countries of Europe that were desolated, and lay uncultivated and uninhabited ; such as one-half of Dalmatia, the north of Poland, the banks of the Tanais, and the fruitful country of the Ukraine, while search was being made after other lands in a new world, and as far as the limits of the old.

SCOTLAND.

In this sketch of the political government of the North, I must not forget Scotland, of which I shall speak further when I come to treat of the article of religion.

Scotland had rather a greater share in the system of Europe than the other nations of the North, because, being at enmity with the English, who were always endeavoring to subject it, it had for a long time been in alliance with France, whose kings could easily prevail upon the Scotch to take arms in their favor whenever it was necessary ; and we find that Francis I. sent no more than thirty thousand crowns — which makes about one hundred and thirty thousand of our present livres — to the party who were to get war declared against the English in 1543. In fact, Scotland is so poor, that even at this time, when it is united with England, it pays only the fortieth part of the subsidies of the two kingdoms.

A poor state which has a rich one for its neigh-

304 Ancient and Modern History.

bor must at length become venal : but as long as this country kept itself free, it was formidable. The English, who under Henry II. conquered Ireland with so much ease, could never subdue Scotland; and Edward III., who was a great warrior and a deep politician, though he conquered it could never keep it. There always subsisted a jealousy and hatred between the Scotch and the English, not unlike that between the Spaniards and the Portuguese. The house of Stuart had sat on the throne of Scotland ever since the year 1370: never was there a more unfortunate family. James I., after having been prisoner in England eighteen years, was murdered by his subjects in 1444, and James II. was killed in the unfortunate expedition to Roxburgh, when he was only twenty-nine years of age. James III., before he was thirty-five was slain by his own subjects in a pitched battle. James IV., son-in- law of Henry VII., king of England, fell at the age of thirty-nine in a battle against the English, in the year 1513, after a very unfortunate reign; and James V. died in the flower of his age, in the year 1542, when he was not quite thirty.

We shall see that the daughter of James V. was still more unfortunate than any of her predecessors, and added to the number of those queens who have died by the hands of the executioner. James VI., her son, became afterward king of Scotland, England, and Ireland, and through the weakness of his intel¬ lect laid the foundations of those revolutions

Germany and the Empire. 305

which afterward brought the head of Charles I. to the block, and drove James VII. into exile, and still keeps this unfortunate family outcasts and wan¬ derers from their own country. The most favorable times for this house were during the reigns of Charles V. and Francis V. James V., who was father of Mary Stuart, sat on the throne of Scot¬ land ; and after his death, his widow, Mary of Lor¬ raine, mother of this Mary, was appointed regent of the kingdom, and it was during her administration that the troubles first began to break out under pre¬ tence of religion, as we shall hereafter see.

I shall not dwell any longer on this review of the kingdoms of the North in the sixteenth century; hav¬ ing already examined the terms on which Germany, England, France, Italy, and Spain, stood with one another, I have hereby acquired a sufficient intro¬ ductory knowledge to the interests of the North and South, and shall now examine more particularly into the state of Europe.

CHAPTER XCIX.

GERMANY AND THE EMPIRE.

The western empire still subsisted in name; but it had been for a long time only a burdensome title, as may appear from its having been refused by the ambitious Edward III. of England, when offered to him by the electors, in 1348. Charles IV., who

was looked upon as the lawgiver of the empire, could Vol. 26 — 20

30 6 Ancient and Modern History.

not obtain permission of Pope Innocent VI. and the barons of Rome to be crowned emperor in that city until he had promised not to lie a night within the walls. His famous Golden Bull, by limiting the number of electors, restored some order in Germany, which had before been a continued scene of anarchy. This law was, at its first institution, considered as fundamental, but has since been frequently departed from. In his time all the cities of Lombardy were actually free and independent of the empire except¬ ing only in some particular rights. Every lord in Germany and Lombardy remained sovereign of his own territories during all the succeeding reigns.

The times of Wenceslaus, Robert, Josse, and Sig- ismund were times of darkness, in which there appeared no trace of the imperial dignity, except in the Council of Constance, which was assembled by Sigismund, and in which that emperor shone forth in full glory.

The emperors had no longer any demesnes, having ceded them at different times to the bishops and cities, either to procure themselves a support against the power of the lords of great fiefs, or to raise money. They had now nothing left but the subsidy of the Roman months, which was paid only in time of war, and for defraying the expenses of the vain ceremony of the emperor’s coronation at Rome, which still subsisted. It was absolutely necessary, therefore, to elect a chief who was powerful of him¬ self, and this first brought the sceptre into the house

Germany and the Empire. 307

of Austria. A prince was wanting, whose domin¬ ions might on the one hand have a communication with Italy, and on the other be capable of opposing the incursions of the Turks; and this advantage Germany found in Albert II., who was duke of /\ustria, and king of Bohemia and Hungary ; this first fixed the imperial dignity in his house, and the throne became hereditary, without ceasing to be elective. Albert and his successors were chosen on account of the large dominions they possessed; and Rudoph of Hapsburg, one of the stocks of that house, had formerly been selected because he had none. The reason of this seeming contradiction is obvious ; Rudolph was elected at a time when the houses of Saxony and Suabia had given reason to fear their becoming despotic, and Albert II., when the house of Austria was thought sufficiently pow¬ erful to defend the empire, and yet not to enslave it.

Frederick III. ascended the imperial throne by this title. Germany was in his time in a state of inability and peace. It was not so powerful as it might have been ; and we have already seen that this prince was very far from being the sovereign of Christendom, as his epitaph imports.

Maximilian I., while he was yet only king of the Romans, began his career in the most glorious man¬ ner by the victory of Guinegate, which he gained over the French in 1479, and the treaty he made with them in 1492, by which he secured the possession of Franche-Comte, Artois, and Charolais. But as he

308 Ancient and Modern History.

drew nothing from the Low Countries, which belonged to his son, Philip the Fair, nor from the people of Germany, and very little from his domin¬ ions in France, he would never have been of any consideration in Italy had it not been for the League of Cambray, and Louis XII. , who did everything for him.

At first the pope and the Venetians prevented him, in the year 1508, from coming to Rome to be crowned emperor ; and he took the title of emperor- elect, as he could not be crowned emperor by the pope. We see him after the League of Cambray, and in the year 1513, receiving the daily pension of a hundred crowns from the English king, Henry VIII. His German dominions furnished him with men to take the field against the Turks, but he wanted those riches with which France, England, and Italy carried on their wars at that time.

Germany had become in reality a republic of princes and cities, notwithstanding that its chief in his edicts spoke in the strain of absolute master of the whole world. It had been divided in the year 1500 into six circles ; and the directors of these cir¬ cles being sovereign princes, and the generals and colonels paid by the provinces and not by the emperor, this establishment, by linking together the several parts of the empire, secured the liberty of the whole. The imperial chamber, which had the pass¬ ing of final judgment, being paid by the princes and cities, and not having its seat in the particular

Germany and the Empire. 309

demesnes of the monarch, proved another support to the public liberty. It is true it could never carry its decrees into execution against powerful princes, unless seconded by the empire ; but this very abuse of liberty was a proof of its real existence ; this is so notorious that the aulic court, which was first formed in 1512, and was entirely under the direction of the emperors, soon proved the strongest support of their authority.

Germany, under this form of government, was at that time as happy a state as any in the world. In¬ habited by a warlike people, who were capable of the greatest military operations, there was no proba¬ bility of the Turks being ever able to subdue it. Its lands were good, and so well cultivated that the inhabitants were at least under no necessity, as for¬ merly, of seeking for other settlements : at the same time they were neither so rich nor so poor, nor so united, as to be in a condition to make the conquest of all Italy.

But what were at that time its pretensions upon Italy and the Roman Empire? The same as those of the Othos and the imperial house of Suabia had been ; the same as those which had cost such a deluge of blood and which had undergone so many alterations since Julius II., who was patriarch as well as pontiff of Rome, had the imprudence, instead of rousing the ancient Roman courage, to call in the assistance of foreigners. Rome had nothing left but to repent of her folly ; for since that time there

310 Ancient and Modern History.

had always been a private war between the empire and the pontificate, as well as between the preten¬ sions of the emperor and the liberties of the Italian provinces. The title of Caesar was only a source of contested rights, undetermined disputes, exterior grandeur, and real weakness. These times were no longer those in which the Othos created kings, and imposed tributes on them. If Louis XII. had main¬ tained a good understanding with the Venetians, instead of taking up arms against them, the emperors would, in all probability, never have set foot again in Italy. But from the divisions among the Italian princes, and the nature of the pontifical government, it unavoidably happened that a great part of this country was always to be a prey to foreigners.

CHAPTER C.

CUSTOMS OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CEN¬ TURIES, AND THE STATE OF THE LIBERAL ARTS.

We find that there are few absolute sovereigns in Europe ; the emperors before Charles V. had never ventured to aim at despotic power. The popes, though much more the masters of Rome than for¬ merly, had much less power in the Church; the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, like the other kingdoms in the North, were elective; and an elec¬ tion necessarily supposes a contract between prince and people. The kings of England could neither make laws nor break them, without the consent of

Customs XV. and XVI. Centuries. 31 1

their parliaments. Isabella of Castile had acknowl¬ edged the rights of the Cortes, which were all the estates of the kingdom. Ferdinand the Catholic, of Aragon, had not been able to abolish the authority of the grand justiciary of that kingdom, who looked upon himself as entitled to be the judge of kings. France alone was changed into a state purely mon¬ archical, after the reign of Louis XI. A happy form of government when a king like Louis XII. appeared, who, by his love for his people, made amends for all the faults he committed with regard to other nations.

The civil government of Europe was greatly improved by the stop which had everywhere been put to the private wars between the feudal lords. The custom of duels, however, was still continued.

The popes by their decrees, which were always wise, and, what is more, always beneficial to Chris¬ tendom, when their own private interests were not concerned, had anathematized these combats; but they were still permitted by several of the bishops ; and the parliaments of Paris sometimes ordered them ; witness the famous one between Legris and Carrouges, in the reign of Charles V. There were several other duels fought by order of the courts. The same evil practice was likewise kept up in Ger¬ many, Italy, and Spain, with the sanction of cer¬ tain forms, which were looked upon as essential ; particularly that of confessing and taking the sacra¬ ments before they prepared for murder. The good

312 Ancient and Modern History.

Chevalier Bayard always heard a mass before he v/ent into the field to fight a duel. The combatants always chose a second, who was to take care that their weapons were equal, and to make diligent search that neither of them had any spell about him ; for nothing on earth was so credulous as a knight.

Some of these knights have been known to leave their own country and go into foreign parts in search of a duel, without any other motive than that of sig¬ nalizing themselves. Duke John of Bourbon, in the year 1414, caused it to be proclaimed that he was going to England with sixteen other knights, to fight to extremity, that he might avoid idleness and merit the favor of the fair lady whom he served.

Tournaments, though condemned by the popes, were practised everywhere. They always went by the name of Ludi Gallici, or the French games ; because one Geoffrey de Preuilly had, in the eleventh century, published a body of rules to be observed in them. ETpward of one hundred knights had been killed in these games ; but this only served to make them more in vogue.

It was thought that the death of Henry II., who was killed at a tournament held in 1599, would have abolished this custom forever ; but the idle lives of the great, long use, and the passions revived these games at Orleans, in less than a year after the tragical death of Henry; when Henry of Bour¬ bon, duke of Montpensier and a prince of the blood lost his life by a fall from his horse. After

Customs XV. and XVI. Centuries. 313

this an entire stop was put to tournaments ; but a faint image of them remained in the Pas d’ Amies, held by Charles IX. and Henry III., the year after the massacre of St. Bartholomew : for in those bloody times they always intermixed feats and diversions with their barbarous proscriptions. This Pas d’ Amies was not attended with any danger, as the combatants did not engage with sharp weapons. There was no tournament held on the marriage of the duke of Joyeuse, in 1581. The word “tourna¬ ment ” is therefore very improperly given by L’Etoile in his “ Journal,” to the show exhibited on

this occasion. The grandees did not fight at all; »

and what L’Etoile calls a tournament was only a warlike ballet or interlude, exhibited in the gardens of the Louvre, by a company of hired performers; and was a performance given to the court, and not given by the court itself. The games which still continued to go by the name of tournaments were only carousals.

We may, therefore, date the suppression of tour¬ naments from the year 1560. With these games expired the ancient spirit of chivalry, which never appeared again but in romances. This kind of spirit was very prevalent in the time of Francis I, and Charles V. Francis was a knight in the true sense of the word, and Charles aimed at being such. They would give each other the lie in public, and afterward meet in the most friendly manner ; and it is known that the emperor put himself into the hands

314 Ancient and Modern History.

of the king of France upon no other security than that of his word of honor, which the king was not capable of violating. There are several occurrences in the reigns of these two princes which savor greatly of the heroic and fabulous ages ; but Charles V. approached nearer to our modern times in the refine¬ ment of his politics.

The art of war, the law of arms, and the offensive and defensive weapons made use of in those days were entirely different from what they are at present.

The emperor Maximilian had introduced the arms made use of by the Macedonian phalanx, which were spears of eighteen feet in length, and were used by the Swiss in the wars of Milan ; but they were soon laid aside for the two-handed sword.

The harquebus, or firelock, had become a necessary weapon against the steel ramparts by which the gendarmerie of those days were defended. No hel¬ met or cuirass was proof against these. The gendar¬ merie, which they called the battalion, fought on foot as well as on horseback: the French gendarm¬ erie was in most estimation in the fifteenth century.

The German and Spanish infantry were reputed the best. The war-cry was almost everywhere laid aside.

As to the government of states at this time, I find cardinals at the head of the administration in almost every kingdom. In Spain I see Cardinal Ximenes, who ruled under Isabella of Castile during her life ; and after her death was appointed regent of the king-

Customs XV. and XVI. Centuries. 315

dom, who, always clad in the habit of a Franciscan friar, placed his chief pride in treading under foot the Spanish grandeur ; who raised an army at his own expense, and afterward led it in person into Africa and took the city of Oran ; in a word, who had made himself absolute, till young Charles V. drove him from the helm of power and obliged him to retire to his archbishopric of Toledo, where he died of grief.

In France, I see Louis XII. governed by Cardinal d’Amboise, and Cardinal Duprat prime minister to Francis I. Henry VIII. of England was, for the space of twenty years, entirely under the direction of Cardinal Wolsey, a man as vainglorious as d’Amboise, and who, like him, wanted to be pope, and, like him, failed in the attempt. Charles V. made his preceptor, Cardinal Adrian, who was afterward pope, his prime minister in Spain ; and Cardinal de Granvelle had afterward the govern¬ ment of Flanders. Lastly, Cardinal Martinusius was master of Hungary, under Ferdinand, brother of Charles V.

Though we see so many military states governed by churchmen, this did not proceed merely from those princes being more ready to place their con¬ fidence in a priest, of whose power they could stand in no apprehension, than in the general of an army, who might in time become formidable to them ; but also, because the churchmen were generally men of more knowledge, and more capable of managing

3 1 6 Ancient and Modern History.

public affairs than either the military officers or the courtiers.

It was not till this century that those cardinals, who were the king’s subjects, took precedency of the chancellor of the kingdom. They disputed it with the electors of the empire, and yielded it to the chan¬ cellors in France and England ; and this again is one of those contradictions which pride had introduced into the republic of Christendom. By the registers of the English parliament we find that Lord Chan¬ cellor Warham had precedence of Cardinal Wolsey till the year 1516.

The title of majesty began now to be assumed by kings, and the ranks of the several sovereigns were settled at Rome. The first place was, without con¬ tradiction, assigned to the emperor ; after him came the king of France, without a competitor ; the kings of Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Sicily took rank in turns with the king of England ; then came Scot¬ land, Hungary, Navarre, Cyprus, Bohemia, and Poland ; and, last of all, Denmark and Sweden. Great disputes arose afterward from this settling of the precedency. The kings, almost to a man, wanted to be equal in rank with each other ; but not one of them attempted to dispute the chief place with the emperors, who thus preserved their rank while they lost their authority.

All the customs in civil life were different from ours ; the doublet and short cloak was the common dress in all courts. The gentlemen of the law every-

Customs XV. and XVI. Centuries. 317

where wore a long and close robe, which fell half way down their legs.

In the time of Francis I. there were but two coaches in the city of Paris ; one for the queen and the other for Diana of Poitiers. The men and •women all rode on horseback.

Riches were now so much increased that Henry VIII. of England, in 1519, promised three hundred and thirty-three thousand gold crowns in dowry with his daughter, Mary, who was to be married to the son of Francis I. This was a larger sum than had ever yet been given by anyone.

The interview between Francis I. and Henry was ft long time famous for its magnificence. Their camp was called the “ Field of the Cloth of Gold ; ” but this momentary parade, this stretch of luxury, did not imply that general magnificence, nor those useful contrivances which are so common in our v'imes, and which so far exceed the pomp of a single day. The hand of industry had not then changed vheir sorry wooden dwellings into sumptuous pal¬ aces; the thatched roofs and mud walls still remained in the streets of Paris. The houses in London were still worse built, and the manner of liv¬ ing there harder. The greatest noblemen, when they went into the country, carried their wives behind them on horseback ; princesses themselves travelled vn no ether manner, or covered with a riding-cloak of waxed cloth in rainy weather; and this dress they wore even when they went to the palace. This

318 Ancient and Modern History.

custom continued till the middle of the seventeenth century. The magnificence of Francis I., Charles V., Henry VIII., and Leo X. was only for days of public solemnity; whereas, at present, the shows and entertainments which we see every day, the number of gilt coaches, and the multitude of lamps which are lighted up during the night-time in the streets of all our great cities, exhibit far greater riches and plenty than the most brilliant ceremonies of the monarchs of the sixteenth century.

In the reign of Louis XII. they first began to sub¬ stitute gold and silver stuffs, in room of the costly furs they were formerly wont to wear. These stuffs were the manufactures of Italy, there being none made at that time in Lyons. Gold work was in gen¬ eral very clumsy, Louis XII. having by an ill-judged sumptuary law forbidden its use throughout his kingdom; so that the French were obliged to send to Venice for all their plate. By this means the goldsmiths were all reduced to poverty ; and Louis XII. at length wisely revoked this law.

Francis I., who in the latter part of his life became an economist, prohibited the wearing of gold and silver stuffs, which prohibition was afterward renewed by Henry II., but had these laws been strictly observed they would have ruined the manu¬ factures of Lyons. What chiefly determined the gov¬ ernment to enact these laws was the consideration of being obliged to have all the silk from foreigners. In the reign of Henry II., none but bishops were per-

Customs XV. and XVI. Centuries. 319

mitted to wear silk. The princes and princesses had the distinguishing privileges of wearing dresses of red silk or woollen stuff. At length, in the year 1563, none but princes and bishops were allowed to wear shoes made of silk.

All these sumptuary laws only show that the views of the government were very narrow, and that the ministers thought it easier to put a check on industry than to encourage it.

Mulberry trees were then cultivated only in Italy and Spain, and gold wire was made nowhere but at Milan and Venice; and yet the French fashions had already insinuated themselves into the courts of Germany, England, and Lombardy. The Italian his¬ torians complain that after the journey which Charles VIII. made into Italy, the people affected to dress themselves after the French fashion, and sent to France for all their ornaments.

Pope Julius II. was the first who let his beard grow, in order to inspire the people with a greater respect for his person by a singularity of appearance. Francis I., Charles V., and all the other kings fol¬ lowed this example, which was immediately adopted by their courtiers : but those of the long robe, who always keep to the ancient customs, whatever they are, still continued to shave their beards, while the young military people affected an air of gravity and age. This is a trifling observation ; but it claims a place in the history of customs.

But that which is more worthy the attention of

320 Ancient and Modern History.

posterity, and of far greater consideration than all the customs introduced by caprice, all the laws which time has abolished, or the disputes of crowned heads, which cease with themselves, is the reputation of the arts, which will never cease. This reputation was, during the sixteenth century, the lot of Italy alone. Nothing more strongly calls to our mind the idea of ancient Greece ; for as the arts flourished in Greece in the midst of foreign and domestic wars, so they did likewise in Italy, and almost all of them were carried to a height of perfection at the time when Rome was sacked by the troops of Charles V., its coasts laid waste by the incursions of Barbarossa, and the heart of the country rent in pieces by the dissensions between the princes and the republics.

FRANCIS I

.

I

eio^AFn

VOLTAIRE

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY

Vol. XIV — Part II

.

.

• . . 1

V

,

'

LIST OF PLATES

Part II

Francis I.

PAGE

Frontispiece

Before the Inquisition

150

Montezuma

214

ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY.

CHAPTER CL .

CHARLES V. AND FRANCIS I. UNTIL THE ELECTION OF CHARLES TO THE EMPIRE IN 1519 — EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN’S PROJECT TO GET PIIMSELF ELECTED POPE - THE BATTLE OF MARIGNANO.

At the time that Charles V. came to the possession of the imperial throne, the empire was no longer at the disposal of the popes, as it formerly had been, and the emperors had relinquished their claims upon Rome. These reciprocal pretensions resem¬ bled the empty titles of king of France, which the English monarchs still continue to assume, and of king of Navarre, which is still retained by the king of France.

The parties of the Guelphs and Ghibellines were almost entirely forgotten. Maximilian had ac¬ quired only a few towns in Italy, which he had taken from the Venetians in consequence of his success in the League of Cambray; but he dis¬ covered a new method of bringing both Rome and Italy under the dominion of the emperors ; which

5

6 Ancient and Modern History.

was, to get himself elected pope after the death of Julius II., as he was a widower by the death of his wife, who was daughter of Galeas Maria Sforza, duke of Milan. There are still to be seen two letters, written by him in 1512; one to his daughter Margaret, regent of the Low Countries, and the other to the lord of Chievres, fully display¬ ing this intention.

Who can tell what might have happened, if the imperial and pontifical crowns had been placed on one head? The system of Europe would have undergone great changes, as it did, though in a different manner, under Charles V. Immediately upon the death of Maximilian, when the affair of indulgences and Luther’s schism began to divide Germany, Francis I., king of France, and Charles of Austria, king of Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Navarre, and sovereign of the seventeen provinces of the Low Country, openly canvassed for the empire, at the time when Germany, threatened with an invasion from the Turk, stood in need of such a chief as Francis, or Charles of Austria. The imperial crown had never before been disputed by such potent princes. Francis I., who was older than his competitor by five years, seemed the most deserving of it, from the great actions which he had lately performed.

Immediately after his accession to the crown of France, in 1515, the republic of Genoa had, through the cabals of its own citizens, put itself again under

Charles V. and Francis I. 7

the French dominion; upon which Francis hastened into Italy, as his predecessors had done.

The first thing to be done was to conquer Milan, which had been lost by Louis XII., and wrest it again from the unfortunate family of the Sforzas. In this enterprise he was joined by the Venetians, who wanted to recover Verona, which had been taken from them by Maximilian ; and he had against him Pope Leo X., an active and intriguing man, and the emperor Maximilian, now worn out with age, and incapable of doing anything : but his most dangerous opponents were the Swiss, who were always at enmity with France since their disputes with Louis XII., and continually spirited up by Matthew Schaner, cardinal of Sion, and who at that time took the title of defenders of the pon¬ tiffs, and protectors of the Italian princes ; titles which had for over ten years been more than imaginary.

While the king was marching toward Milan he continued to amuse them with negotiations ; and the cardinal of Sion, on his side, who had taught this nation the arts of dissimulation and deceit, amused the king with vain promises, till the Swiss, having certain advice of the arrival of the military chest, thought they might at one stroke make them¬ selves masters of this treasure and the king’s person, and deliver Italy from its fears.

Accordingly in 1515 twenty-five thousand Swiss, wearing St. Peter’s key as a badge on their shoul-

8

Ancient and Modern History.

tiers and breasts, and armed, partly with long spears, and partly with large two-handed swords, fell sud¬ denly, with a great cry, upon the king’s camp at Marignano. This was the most obstinate and bloody battle that had ever been fought in Italy. The French and Swiss, confounded with one another in the darkness of the night, waited for daylight to renew the combat. We know that the king slept upon the breech of a cannon, within fifty paces of one of the enemy’s battalions. In this battle the Swiss always attacked, and the French stood on the defensive ; which is in my opinion a sufficient proof that the French may, on some occasions, be pos¬ sessed of that passive courage which is sometimes as necessary as the impetuous ardor by which they are generally distinguished. It was particularly noble to see a young prince only twenty-one years of age, so cool and steady during so sharp and long an engagement. As the battle lasted so long, it was hardly possible for the Swiss to gain the victory, because the black bands of Germany, who were then with the king, formed an infantry as firm as their own, and they had no horsemen. It is even sur¬ prising that they were able, for two days together, to stand against the attacks of those large war- horses, which were continually charging their bro¬ ken battalions. Marshal de Trivulca called this battle the fight of the giants. It was generally agreed, that the honor of this victory was chiefly owing to the famous constable, Charles of Bour-

Charles V. and Francis I.

9

bon, who was afterward so ill rewarded, and carried his revenge to such extremities. The Swiss at length gave way, but without suffering a total defeat, and fled, leaving over ten thousand of their countrymen on the field of battle, and abandoned the Milanese to the conquerors. Maximilian Sforza was carried prisoner into France, as Louis the Moor had been, but on more gentle terms ; for he became a subject, whereas Louis was a captive; and this sovereign of the finest country in Italy was suffered to live in France on a moderate pension.

Francis, after this victory of Marignano and the conquest of the Milanese, entered into an alliance with Pope Leo X. and even with the Swiss nation, who at length chose to furnish the French with troops, rather than to fight against them. He obliged the emperor Maximilian, by dint of arms, to restore Verona to the Venetians, which they have ever since continued to possess. He procured the duchy of Urbino for Leo X., which still belongs to the Church : in short, he was at that time looked upon as master of Italy, and the greatest prince in Europe, and as a person the most worthy of the empire, which he stood for after the death of Maxi¬ milian. Fame had not as yet sounded the name of young Charles of Austria, which was one reason that determined the electors to give him the prefer¬ ence. They were apprehensive of being held too much in subjection by the king of France; whereas they did not so much fear the power of a master,

io Ancient and Modern History.

whose dominions, though very extensive, lay at a considerable distance from each other. Charles then was elected emperor, in 1519, notwithstanding that Francis I. had laid out four hundred thousand crowns in purchasing the suffrages.

CHAPTER CII.

CHARLES V. AND FRANCIS I. UNTIL THE BATTLE OF

PAVIA.

Everyone knows the great rivalry which from this time arose between these two princes ; and, indeed, how could they be otherwise than continu¬ ally at war with each other? Charles, as sovereign of the Low Countries, had a claim on Artois and several other towns; and as king of Naples and Sicily, beheld Francis I. ready to claim those domin¬ ions on the same title as Louis XII. As king of Spain he had Navarre to defend, which he had usurped ; and lastly, in quality of emperor, he could not but defend the great fief of Milan against the pretensions of the house of France. How many reasons were here for laying Europe waste !

Pope Leo X. at first endeavored to hold the bal¬ ance between these two powerful rivals. But how could he do it? Whom was he to choose for vassal, and king of the Two Sicilies — Charles or Francis? What would become of the ancient law made by the pontiffs in the thirteenth century. “ That no king of Naples could ever be emperor?” Leo was

Charles V. and Francis I. n

not sufficiently powerful to enforce the execution of this law, which, however respected it might be at Rome, was not so in the empire. The pope then was very soon obliged to grant Charles V. that dispensation which he thought proper to ask, and to receive a vassal who made him tremble; but no sooner had he granted it than he heartily repented of what he had done.

That balance which Leo was for holding, was actually in the hands of Henry VIII. Accordingly the emperor and the king of France courted his friendship, and both of them endeavored to gain over his prime minister and favorite, Cardinal Wolsey.

Francis I. began by settling that famous interview with the king of England, near Calais. After this, in 1520, Charles left Spain to pay a visit to Henry at Canterbury, and Henry conducted him at his return as far as Calais and Gravelines.

It was natural for the king of England to side with the emperor, for by joining with him, he had a prospect of getting back those provinces in France which had formerly been the patrimony of his ancestors; whereas, by entering into an alliance with Francis, he could gain nothing in Germany, where he had no pretensions.

While he was thus spinning out time, Francis began this never-ending quarrel by seizing upon Navarre. And here, though I should never think of losing sight of the sketch of Europe, for the sake

12 Ancient and Modern History.

of hunting after authorities to refute the assertions of some historians ; yet I cannot forbear observing how much Puffendorf is sometimes mistaken. He says that this attempt upon Navarre was made in the year 1516, immediately after the death of Fer¬ dinand the Catholic, by John d’Albret, who had been driven from that kingdom; and adds, that Charles had always before his eyes his plus ultra, and was every day forming great designs. Now, here are a number of mistakes. In 1516 Charles was only fifteen years of age, and had not then assumed his device of plus ultra; lastly, it was not John d’Albret who invaded Navarre in 1516, after the death of Ferdinand, for John himself died in that very year ; it was Francis I. who made the tran¬ sient conquest of this kingdom in the name of Henry d’Albret, not in 1516, but in 1521.

Neither Charles VIII., Louis XII., nor Francis I. kept the conquests they made. Navarre was hardly subdued, when it was taken again by the Spaniards ; and from that time the French were obliged to be continually fighting against the Spanish troops in all the extremities of the kingdom, on the borders of Fontarabia, Flanders, and Italy; and affairs remained in this situation till the beginning of our present century.

At the time that Charles Spanish troops were conquering Navarre, his German troops penetrated into Picardy, and his emissaries were raising the Italians in his favor.

Charles V. and Francis I. 13

Pope Leo, who was always fluctuating between Francis I. and Charles V., was at this time in the emperor’s interest. He had had reason to complain of the French, for having endeavored to take Reg¬ gio from him as a part of the territories of Milan, and they had made their new neighbors their ene¬ mies by several unseasonable acts of violence. Lau- trec, governor of Milan, had caused the lord of Pallavicini to be quartered, on suspicion of having attempted to raise an insurrection of the Milanese, and had given his forfeited estates to his own brother, de Foix. This caused a universal discon¬ tent, which the French administration took no care to appease, either by prudent laws, or by sending over a necessary sum of money.

It availed them nothing that they had a number of Swiss in their pay; the imperial army had the same ; and the famous cardinal of Sion, who was always so fatal to the kings of France, having found means to send those who were in the French army home to their own country, Lautrec, the gov¬ ernor of Milan, was soon driven from his capital, and afterward quite out of the country. At this time Leo X. died, just as his temporal monarchy was becoming strong and the spiritual one falling to decay.

The power of Charles V., and the wisdom of his council now appeared in their full lustre. He had sufficient interest to get his preceptor, Adrian, elected pope, though a native of Utrecht, and in a

14 Ancient and Modern History.

manner unknown at Rome. His council also, which was far superior to that of Francis I. in abilities, artfully stirred up Henry VIII. against France, who hoped at least to be able to dismember that country of which his ancestors had formerly been in possession. Charles made a voyage to England in person, to forward the armament, and hasten its departure ; soon afterward he contrived to detach the Venetians from their alliance with France, and bring them over to his interest; and, to complete the whole, a faction which he maintained in Genoa, assisted by his troops, expelled the French, and elected a new doge, who put himself under the emperor’s protection. Thus, by his superior power and skill, did he hem in and press the French mon¬ archy on all sides.

Under these circumstances Francis I., who lav¬ ished great sums on his pleasures, and kept but little money for his necessary affairs, was obliged to take a massive grate of silver, with which Louis XI. had surrounded the tomb of St. Martin at Tours, and which weighed nearly seven thousand marks. The money was certainly of more use to the state than to St. Martin, but a shift of this kind was a mark of pressing necessity. Some years before he had sold twenty new counsellors’ places in the Par¬ liament of Paris. This setting up of justice at auction, and carrying off the ornaments of the tombs, plainly showed a great disorder in the finances. He now saw himself alone against all

Charles V. and Francis l. 15

Europe ; and yet so far was he from being discour¬ aged, that he made resistance in every part, and pro¬ vided so effectually for the security of the frontiers of Picardy, that the English could never force an entrance into France, though they had Calais, the key of the kingdom, in their hands. He kept mat¬ ters upon an equal footing in Flanders, and suffered no encroachment on the side of Spain : in short, though he had no place but the castle of Cremona left in Italy, this resolute monarch resolved to go in person and reduce the Milanese, that fatal object of ambition with the kings of France.

But neither St. Martin’s grate, nor the sale of twenty new counsellors’ places, were sufficient to answer so many different calls, and to provide for an attempt upon the Milanese, attacked as he was on all sides. The royal demesnes w'ere therefore now for the first time alienated, and an increase made in taxes of all kinds. This was one great advantage that the kings of France had over their neighbors; Charles V. could not carry his absolute authority to this length in his dominions ; but this fatal power of ruining themselves was the source of numberless evils to France.

Among other causes of the misfortunes which befell Francis I. we may reckon his injustice to the constable of Bourbon, to whom he was indebted for the victory of Marignano. It was not thought suffi¬ cient to mortify him on all occasions, but Louisa of Savoy, duchess of Angouleme, the kings mother,

V

1 6 Ancient and Modern History.

being desirous of marrying the constable, who had lately become a widower, and having been refused by him, resolved to ruin the man she could not wed; and instituted a suit against him, which was deemed highly unjust by all the lawyers of those times, and which no other but a powerful queen-mother could have gained.

This suit was for no less than all the possessions of the family of Bourbon. The judges suffered themselves to be prevailed on by the queen’s solicita¬ tions, and, by a sentence of sequestration, stripped the constable at once of all his estates, who there¬ upon sent his friend, the bishop of Autun, to request the king to put a stop to the proceedings ; but the king would not even see the bishop. Upon this the constable, who had already been strongly solicited by Charles V. to enter into his service, in a fit of despair and anger, accepted the offer. It would have been truly heroic in him to have continued to do his duty to his country, though ill treated ; but there is another kind of heroism, that of revenge; unfortunately, Charles of Bourbon made choice of the latter, quitted France, and entered into the emperor’s service. Few men ever tasted the fatal pleasure of revenge more fully than himself.

1 he constable was immediately made generalissimo of the armies of the empire, and repaired to Milan, which had been entered by the French under Admiral Bonnivet, his greatest enemy. A general who knew the strength and weakness of all the troops of

Charles V. and Francis I. iy

trance could not but have a great advantage; but Charles had a still greater ; almost all the Italian princes were in his interest ; the people hated the French government; and lastly, he had the best generals in Europe in his service ; such as Marquis de Pescara, Lannoy, and John de Medici, names famous even in these times.

Admiral Bonnivet could by no means stand in competition with these generals; and had he even been superior to them in ability, he was far inferior in the number and quality of his troops, which besides were very ill paid ; he was therefore quickly compelled to fly, and was attacked in his retreat at Biagrasse. The famous Chevalier Bayard,1 who

1 Pierre du Terrail, chevalier de Bayard, who was a real knight-errant and deemed the flower of chivalry, descended from an ancient and honorable family in Dauphiny. His great-grandfather’s father fell at the feet of King John in the battle of Poitiers ; his great-grandfather was slain at the battle of Agincourt; his grandfather lost his life in the bat¬ tle of Montlhery; and his father was desperately wounded in the battle of Guinegate, commonly called the tattle of the Spurs. The chevalier himself had signalized- himself from his youth by incredible acts of personal valor ; first of all at the battle of Fornovo : in the reign of Louis XII. he, with his single arm, defended the bridge at Naples against two hundred knights : in the reign of Francis I. he fought so valiantly at the battle of Marignano, under the eye of his sovereign, that, after the action, Francis insisted upon being knighted by his hand, after the manner of chivalry. Having given his king the slap on the shoulder, and dubbed him knight, he addressed himself to his sword in these terms : “ How happy art thou, in having this day conferred the order of knighthood on such Vol. 27 — 2

1 8 Ancient and Modern History.

though he never commanded in chief, was truly deserving the surname of “ The Knight without Fear or Reproach,” was mortally wounded in this engagement, in which the French were put to rout. Almost every reader knows that, when Charles of Bourbon, on seeing him in this condition, expressed his concern for him, the dying Bayard made him this reply : “ It is not I who am to be pitied, but yourself, who fight against your king and country.”

This prince’s desertion had nearly proved the ruin of the kingdom. He had certain litigious claims upon Provence, which he might secure to himself by the force of arms, in the room of the real rights of which he had been bereft by the sentence of the

a virtuous and powerful monarch. Certes, my good sword, thou shalt henceforth be kept as a relic, and honored above all others, and never will I wear thee except against the infidels.” So saying, he cut a caper twice, and then sheathed his sword. He behaved with such extraordinary courage and conduct on a great number of delicate occa¬ sions, that he was promoted to tire rank of lieutenant- general, and held in universal esteem. It was at the retreat of Rebec that his back was broken with a musket shot. Perceiving himself mortally wounded, he exclaimed: “Jesus, my God, I am a dead man.” Then he kissed the cross of his sword, repeated some prayers aloud, caused himself to be laid under a tree, with a stone supporting his head, and his face toward the enemy, observing that he would not, in the last scene of his life, begin to turn his back on the enemy. He sent a dutiful message to the king by the lord of Alegre; and having made a military will by word of mouth, was visited and caressed by the con¬ stable of Bourbon and Marquis de Pescara. He died on the spot, in the forty-eighth year of his age.

Francis I. Taken Prisoner. 19

court. Charles V. had promised him the ancient kingdom of Arles, of which Provence would be the chief part. King Henry VIII. gave him one hun¬ dred thousand crowns a month, for the expenses of this year’s war. He had taken Toulon, in 1524, and was now besieging Marseilles. Francis I. had doubtless great reason to repent of what he had done ; but affairs were not as yet desperate ; he had still a flourishing army on foot, with which he hastened to the relief of Marseilles, and having driven the enemy out of Provence, he fell again upon the duchy of Milan. The constable then returned to Germany, to raise fresh troops ; and for some time during this interval Francis I. thought himself master of Italy.

CHAPTER CIII.

FRANCIS I. TAKEN PRISONER - THE TAKING OF ROME

- SOLYMAN REPULSED - PRINCIPALITIES CON¬ FERRED - INQUIRY WHETHER CHARLES V. AIMED

AT UNIVERSAL MONARCHY — SOLYMAN PRO¬ CLAIMED KING OF PERSIA IN BABYLON.

We now come to one of the most striking examples of those turns of fortune, which are in fact no other than the necessary concatenation of all events in the world. While Charles V., on the one side, was employed in Spain in regulating the ranks of his subjects, and forming the etiquette; on the other, Francis I., already famous throughout Europe by his

20

Ancient and Modern History.

victory at Marignano, and as courageous as Cheva¬ lier Bayard, accompanied by his heroic nobles, and at the head pf a fine army, was in the midst of Milan. Pope Clement VII. who, not without good reason stood in fear of the emperor, openly declared for the king of France; and John de Medici, one of the greatest generals of that age, fought for him at the head of a chosen body of veteran troops, and yet he was defeated at Pavia, Feb. 24, 1525; and although he performed acts of valor which were alone suffi¬ cient to immortalize his name, was made a prisoner, together with the chief nobles of his king. To add to his misfortune, he was taken by the only French officer who had followed the duke of Bourbon ; and this very man whom he had condemned at Paris, was now master of his life.1 This gentleman, whose

1 Francis, in person, at the head of two thousand men-at- arms, charged with such impetuosity that Pescara was unhorsed and dangerously wounded, and the whole body he commanded must have been ruined, had not he been succored by the duke de Bourbon, who had already made a terrible carnage, and now fell upon the French men-at- arms with irresistible fury. All that the great officers now surviving could do was to assemble and defend the person of their sovereign, who fought like a knight-errant, sword in hand. La Pelisse, la Trimoille, Galeas de San- severino, and Bonnivet, fell by his side, and he was sur¬ rounded by the imperial cavalry, the officers of which, perceiving by his armor that he was some person of great rank, resolved to take him alive, and for that purpose slew his horse. In his fall he received a wound in the leg, notwithstanding which he started up, and still fought on foot with surprising prowess. Pomperant, who had accom-

Francis I. Taken Prisoner.

21

name was Pomperant, had once the honor of pre¬ serving him from death, and making him his pris-

panied the duke of Bourbon in his revolt, chancing to come up, and seeing the king in such a dangerous situation, drew his sword and, joining Francis, helped to keep off the soldiers who pressed upon him in order to take him alive; at the same time he desired that the duke of Bour¬ bon might be called to receive the king as a prisoner. Francis, transported with rage, declared he would rather die than deliver his sword to a traitor; then turning to Pomperant, “ Send for Lannoy, viceroy of Naples,” said he, “ to him I will surrender.” That officer accordingly approaching, the king said to him in the Italian language : “ M. de Lannoy, there is the sword of a king who deserves some commendation, seeing, before he parts with it, that he has made use of it in shedding the blood of many of your army, and who is not a prisoner through cowardice, but the accidents of fortune.” Lannoy received the sword upon his knees, and respectfully kissed his hand; then presented the king with his own sword, saying : “ I beg your majesty will be so good as to receive mine, which has this day spared the lives of many Frenchmen; it does not become the emperor’s officer to leave a king disarmed, even though a prisoner.” He was immediately conveyed to the viceroy’s tent, where his wounds were dressed, and he was treated with all possible respect. Lannoy is said to have begged his majesty to see the duke of Bourbon, who at his request was admitted, and, kneeling, kissed his hand : but some historians assert that he positively refused to see the traitor. He should not have provoked the duke’s resentment by acts of tyranny and injustice, which by the law of nature cancel the obligation of allegiance, for the duties of allegiance and protection are reciprocal. Next day Francis was conducted to the strong fortress of Pizighitone, where he remained for some time under the guard of Alrazon, the Spanish governor of the place, who observed toward him all the punctilios of decorum.

22 Ancient and Modern History.

oner. It is certain that the duke of Bourbon, one of his victors, came that very day to pay him a visit, and to enjoy his triumph over a fallen enemy. But this interview was not the only misfortune which Francis had to encounter on that fatal day. Never was letter more true than that which this prince wrote to the queen, his mother, after the battle: “ Madame, all is lost, our honor excepted.” Every^ thing seemed to foretell his inevitable ruin. His frontiers were unguarded, his treasury exhausted, a general consternation prevailed throughout all orders of the state, and violent dissensions in the council of the queen, who was regent during his absence. Lastly, the king of England threatened France with an invasion, and to revive the fatal times of Edward III. and Henry V.

Charles V., without having as yet unsheathed his sword, kept a king and a hero prisoner in his cap¬ ital of Madrid : and here Charles for once seems to have neglected his good fortune; for, instead of entering France in person, to take advantage of the victory his generals had gained in Italy, he remained idle in Spain; and instead of seizing Milan for himself, he thought it necessary to bestow the inves¬ titure of that duchy on Francis Sforza, that he might not give umbrage to the rest of Italy. Henry VIII., likewise, instead of joining with Charles to dismem¬ ber France, became jealous of his rising greatness, and entered into a treaty with the queen regent. In a word, the captivity of Francis I., which to all

Francis I. Taken Prisoner. 23

appearance should have occasioned such great revolutions, produced only a ransom, mutual reproaches, the lie given, and idle challenges.1 which

1 In the year 1528, the king- of France and England hav¬ ing declared war against the emperor, by the mouths of two heralds admitted to a public audience, Charles in his reply declared that Francis had broken his word, and charged the French herald to remind his master of the proposal which he (the emperor) had made two years before, namely, that their difference should be determined by single combat. Francis no sooner received this message, than he sent a written challenge to the emperor by a herald, who recited it aloud to him, and in public, at Valladolid. Charles not only accepted it without hesitation, but imme¬ diately despatched a herald, called Bourgogne, to Paris with a written paper, proposing that the duel should be fought in a little island of the river that runs by Font- arabia. Bourgogne with much difficulty obtained an audi¬ ence of Francis, seated on his throne, in the midst of his princes and nobility : but before he opened his lips, the French king told him he had nothing to do but give security for the field of battle. The herald assured him that he would ; but desired permission to say what he had in charge from the emperor. The king declared he would hear nothing but the assignment and security of the place, and retired to another apartment, whither he was followed by Bourgogne, who observed that if he would not hear him, he could not pretend to deliver the cartel, nor specify the place. He said he had a writing which would inform his majesty; but for his part he could not sepaiate what might appear superfluous from what was necessary; and he demanded, that he should either have the same permis¬ sion which was granted to the French heralds in Spain, or receive an authentic act of these transactions for his own justification. This last was granted, together with a safe- conduct for his return : but still he continued to solicit an audience, protesting that the paper described the place of

24 Ancient and Modern History.

threw a kind of ridicule on these terrible events, and seemed to degrade the two chief personages in Christendom.

It is true, that by the unhappy Treaty of Madrid in 1526, the captive king gave up Burgundy; but he soon afterward was sufficiently powerful to refuse to comply with this article of the treaty. He lost the lordships of Flanders and Artois ; but that was only losing an empty homage. His two sons remained prisoners in his room, as hostages for his performance of the treaty ; but he purchased their liberty for a sum of money; indeed, their ran¬ som cost two millions of gold crowns, which greatly distressed the kingdom at that time. If we consider what it cost France to ransom Francis I., King John, and St. Louis, and how much money was wasted by the duke of Anjou, brother of Charles, and the French king, and the sums expended in the wars against the English, we shall find it a subject of astonishment that Francis should find so many resources afterward. These, however, were owing

combat ; that the king was bound in honor either to receive it with his own hand, or allow it to be published ; and that it would be his fault if the duel was not actually fought. In a word, such was the perseverance and industry of this officious messenger that he would not leave the kingdom until he was threatened with hanging, and even a gibbet erected for that purpose. Such is the account which Antonio de Vera gives of this transaction ; from which it would appear that Francis I., notwithstanding his boasted heroism, and the advantages of person he had over Charles, was not at all inclined to this method of determination.

Francis I. Taken Prisoner. 25

to the successive acquisitions of Dauphiny, Pro¬ vence, and Brittany, and the annexing of the duchy of Burgundy to the crown, and to the flourishing condition of the French trade, which helped in some measure to repair the misfortunes of the war, and the kingdom enabled to bear up against the great successes of Charles V.1

Fortune, which had thrown a king into his power, made him the next year master of .the person of Pope Clement VII. without his having had the least share in bringing it about, or, indeed, without his having so much as thought of it. The apprehension of his power had united against him the pope, the king of England, and half of Italy. The same duke of Burgundy that had been so fatal an enemy to Francis I. proved the same to Clement VII. He commanded on the frontiers of Milan, with an army composed of Spaniards, Italians, and Germans. This army had been victorious, but was very badly paid, and in want of everything: he therefore pro¬ posed to his officers and men, to march to Rome and plunder that city by way of payment ; a plan of the

1 It was not owing to any internal resources of com¬ merce that France owed her safety at this period ; but, as our author afterward observes, to the embarrassments that hindered the emperor from improving his good fortune. The troubles of Germany excited by the progress of Luth¬ eranism; the irruption of the Turks in Hungary; the dissensions of Italy; the intrigues of the Venetians; and the caprice of Henry VIII., king of England, who shifted occasionally from one side to the other, and kept both in alarm.

16 Ancient and Modern Histofy.

same kind as that of the Goths and Heruli of old. The soldiers gladly embraced the offer, and instantly began their march, notwithstanding that a truce had been lately signed between the pope and the viceroy of Naples. They arrived before Rome, in 1527; scaled the walls of the city, and the duke of Bourbon was slain in mounting one of the ladders. Rome, however, was taken, given up to plunder, and sacked ; and the pope, who had retreated for safety to the castle of St. Angelo, was taken prisoner there.

The taking of Rome, and capture of the pope, did not, however, render Charles any more the absolute master of Italy than the taking of Francis I. had procured him an entry into France. The scheme of universal monarchy then, which is generally attributed to this emperor, is as false and chimerical as that afterward imputed to Louis XIV. For so far was Charles from keeping Rome, or subduing all Italy, that, in 1528, he gave the pope his liberty for four hundred thousand gold crowns — of which, however, he only received one hundred thousand — as he had before released the children of France for two millions of crowns.

It may seem surprising that an emperor who was master of Spain, of the seventeen provinces of the Low Countries, of Naples and Sicily, and lord paramount of Lombardy, and already in possession of Mexico, and whose subjects were then making the conquest of Peru for him, should have made so little advantage of his good fortune. But the first

Francis I. Taken Prisoner. 27

sums which had been sent him from Mexico were swallowed up by the sea ; and he received no settled tribute from America, as his successor, Philip II., afterward did. The troubles occasioned in Ger¬ many by Lutheranism perplexed him on one side, and on the other he was alarmed by the progress of the Turks in Hungary. He was obliged at the same time to resist the attacks of Sultan Solyman and Francis I., to keep the German princes in subjection, to manage the Italians, and the Venetians, and to fix that wavering prince, Henry VIII. So that though he still continued to fill the first place on the theatre of Europe, he was very far from approaching to universal monarchy.

His generals found it very difficult to rid Italy of the French, who had, in 1528, penetrated as far as the kingdom of Naples. The system of a balance of power was then established in Europe ; for immedi¬ ately after the taking of Francis I., the English and the powers of Italy entered into a league with France to counterbalance the emperor’s power. They did the same upon the pope’s being taken.

In 1529, a peace was concluded at Cambray, on the plan of the treaty of Madrid, by which Francis had been set at liberty. It was at the signing of this peace that Charles gave up the children of France, and desisted from his pretensions upon Burgundy, for the consideration of two millions of crowns.

Charles now left Spain to go to Rome, and receive the imperial crown from the hands of the

28

Ancient and Modern History.

pope, and to kiss the feet of him whom he had so lately detained captive. He disposed of all Lom¬ bardy as absolute master; for he invested Francis Sforza in the duchy of Milan, and Alexander de Medici in that of Tuscany; he named a duke of Mantua, and obliged the pope to restore Modena and Reggio to the duke of Ferrara in 1530; but all this he did for a pecuniary consideration, and with¬ out reserving to himself any other right than that of lord paramount.

So many princes at his feet gave him that external air of grandeur which is so apt to deceive ; but he was truly great in marching to drive Solvman out of Hungary, at the head of a hundred thousand men, assisted by his brother Ferdinand and all the Prot¬ estant princes of Germany, who signalized them¬ selves for the defence of Europe. This was the first beginning of his active life and personal glory. We now find him at once fighting against the Turks ; preventing the French from passing the Alps; appointing a council, and returning into Spain, in 1535, in order to carry the war into Africa; landing before Tunis, gaining a victory over the usurper of that kingdom, appointing a king of Tunis, tribu¬ tary to Spain, and delivering eighteen thousand Christians from captivity, whom he brought home in triumph to Europe, and who, succored by his bounty, returned each to his native country, and exalted the name of Charles V. to the skies. All the princes of Christendom now seemed small in com-

Francis I. Taken Prisoner. 29

parison with him, and all other glory seemed lost in the superior lustre of his fame.

His good fortune also ordered it so that Soly- man, who was a more formidable enemy than Fran¬ cis I., was at that time employed in a war against the Persians. He had taken Tauris, in 1534, and, directing his march toward ancient Assyria, he made himself master of Mesopotamia, now called Diar- beck, and of Kurdestan, which is the ancient Susi- ana, and entered the city of Bagdad, the new Baby¬ lon, in triumph. After this, he caused himself to be inaugurated king of Persia, by the caliph of Bag¬ dad. The caliphs had for a long time been divested of everything in Persia, excepting the honor of giv¬ ing the turban to the sultans, and girding the scimi¬ tar to the side of the strongest power. Mahmoud, Genghis, Tamerlane, and Sufi Ismael, had accus¬ tomed the Persians to change masters. Solyman, after having taken one half of Persia from Thamas, the son of Ismael, returned victorious to Constan¬ tinople. After his departure his generals lost a part of their master’s conquests in Persia. Thus were things kept in balance; kingdom fell upon king¬ dom; the Persians attacked the Turks; the Turks, Germany and Italy; and Germany and Spain fell upon France, and had there been any other nations farther westward, these would have become so many new enemies to Spain and France.

Europe had experienced no violent shocks since the fall of the Roman Empire; and no emperor

30 Ancient and Modern History.

since Charlemagne had ever shone with such glory as Charles V. The one holds the first rank within the memory of man as a conqueror and the founder of states ; the other, with as much power, had the most difficult character to support. Charlemagne, with the numerous armies trained by Pepin and Charles Martel, made an easy conquest of the ener¬ vated Lombards and the wild Saxons. Charles V. had always the kingdom of France, the Turkish Empire, and the half of Germany to guard against.

England, which in the eighth century was sepa¬ rated from the rest of the world, became in the six¬ teenth a powerful kingdom, which it was always necessary to keep well with. But what rendered the situation of Charles V. greatly superior to that of Charlemagne was, that having almost the same extent of country in Europe under his dominion, this country was always better peopled, in a more flourishing state, and abounded more in great men of every kind. There was not one great trading city at the first revival of the empire under Charle¬ magne : nor were any names but those of the most powerful handed down to posterity. The single province of Flanders was of more value in the sixteenth century than the whole empire in the ninth : and Italy in the time of Pope Paul III. is to Italy in the time of Adrian I. and Leo III. what the modern architecture is to the Gothic. I shall take no notice here of the liberal arts, for which this century might have vied with the Augustan age,

Conduct of Francis I. ji

nor of the happiness of Charles V., who could reckon so many great geniuses among his subjects; this work being dedicated only to public affairs and the general sketch of the world.

CHAPTER CIV.

THE CONDUCT OF FRANCIS I. - HIS INTERVIEW WITH

CHARLES V. - THEIR DISPUTES AND WARS - ALLI¬

ANCE BETWEEN THE KING OF FRANCE AND SULTAN SOLYMAN - DEATH OF FRANCIS I.

The conduct of Francis I. who, on seeing his rival thus disposing of kingdoms, endeavored once more to get possession of Milan, which he had solemnly renounced by two treaties, and for this purpose called in the assistance of Solyman and his Turks, whom Charles V. had driven out of Europe, might be agreeable to good politics ; but it stood in need of great success to render it glorious.

This prince might have quitted his pretensions to Milan, the inexhaustible source of war, and the burying-place of so many of his nation, as Charles had relinquished his rights to Burgundy, which were founded on the treaty of Madrid ; he would then have enjoyed a happy peace, would have adorned, well governed, and improved his kingdom much more than he did in the latter part of his life; and might have given full scope to those virtues he really possessed. He was great in that he was an encourager of the arts; but the unhappy desire he

32 Ancient and Modern History.

had to be duke of Milan, and vassal of the empire, whether the emperor would or not, proved prejudi¬ cial to his glory. Being reduced to seek the assist¬ ance of Barbarossa, he was severely reproached by that corsair for not having properly seconded him, and was afterward openly called a renegade, and a perjured wretch, in a full assembly of the imperial diet.

How fatal a contrast was it to cause a number of poor Lutherans, among whom were several Ger¬ mans, to be burned in a slow fire, at Paris, and at the same time to enter into an alliance with the Lutheran princes of Germany, to whom he was obliged to excuse himself for this cruelty, and even to affirm that there were no Germans among those who had suffered. How can historians have the meanness to approve of these punishments, and to call them the effects of the pious zeal of a prince, given up to his passions and pleasures, and void even of the shadow of that piety they pretend to attribute to him! If this was a religious act, it was cruelly falsified by the prodigious number of Catho¬ lic captives whom his treaty with Solyman gave up to the chains of Barbarossa, on the coasts of Italy. If it was an act of policy, we may by the same rule approve of the persecutions of the Pagans, in which so many Christians were sacrificed. Charles V. put no Lutheran to death ; and he set at liberty eighteen thousand captives, instead of delivering them up to the Turks.

Conduct of Francis I.

33

In the fatal expedition of Milan, it was neces¬ sary to pass through Piedmont ; but the duke of Savoy refused the king a passage: upon which he attacked that prince at the time the emperor was returning victorious from Tunis. Another cause for wasting Savoy by fire and sword was, that the mother of Francis I. was of that family, and some pretensions upon certain parts of that state had long been a subject of discord. The wars of Milan in like manner arose from the marriage of Louis XII. There is hardly any hereditary state in Europe which has not suffered by war on account of marriage. By this means the public law has become the greatest scourge of the people, as almost all the clauses in contracts and treaties have had to be explained by the sword. The duke’s dominions were ravaged, and this invasion of Francis was what procured Geneva its full liberty, and made it as it were the new capital of the Reformed Religion. It happened that this same king who put the innovators in relig¬ ion to the most cruel deaths in Paris, who made public processions to atone for their errors, who said that he would not spare even his own children if they were guilty of the like, was everywhere else the principal support of those whom he endeavored to root out of his own dominions.

Father Daniel is guilty of great injustice in say¬ ing that the city of Geneva at that time broke into open rebellion against the duke of Savoy. This duke

was not its sovereign ; it was a free imperial city, Vol. 27 — 3

34 Ancient and Modern History.

and, like Cologne and many other cities, shared in the government with its bishop. The bishop had ceded his rights to the duke, and these rights being contested, had been put in arbitration twelve years before. This writer, then, should rather have observed, that Geneva was at that time a small and poor city; and that since it became free, it has been twice as well peopled, industrious, and trad¬ ing.

In the meantime, what fruits did Francis I. reap from so many enterprises ? Charles V. arrived from Rome, obliged the French to repass the Alps, entered Provence with fifty thousand men, advanced as far as Marseilles, laid siege to Arles, in 1536, while another of his armies laid waste Champagne and Picardy. Thus the fruit of this new attempt upon Italy was only exposing France itself to imminent danger.

Provence and Dauphiny were saved only by the wise conduct of Marshal de Montmorency, as they have been in our time by another marshal of France. We may derive great advantage I think from his¬ tory, by comparing time and events. It is a pleasure truly worthy of a good citizen to examine into the means by which two victorious armies were driven out of the same state upon the same occasions. Those who live amidst the indolence of great cities, know little of the pains and efforts that are required to get provisions in a country which has hardly suffi¬ cient to maintain its own inhabitants, to find money

Conduct of Francis I.

35

to pay the troops, to establish the necessary credit, to guard the banks of rivers, and to dislodge an enemy from the advantageous posts they may occupy. But such details do not enter into our plan ; and it is only necessary to examine them at the instant of action. They are materials of the edifice, which are no longer to be considered when the build¬ ing is completed.

That which more particularly characterizes the disputes between Charles V. and Francis I., and the shocks which they gave to Europe, is an odd mix¬ ture of openness and double dealing, frantic anger, and cordial reconciliation, the most brutal insults buried in an instantaneous oblivion, together with the deepest artifice and most generous confidence.

Could one expect to find Charles and Francis hav¬ ing a familiar interview with each other, like two neighboring gentlemen, after the captivity of Mad¬ rid, after the lie given to the teeth, after reciprocal challenges, and duels proposed in the presence of the pope, in full consistory, after the French king’s league with Sultan Solyman ; and, in short, after the emperor had been accused, as publicly as unjustly, of having caused the first dauphin to be poisoned, and even while the frontiers of both kingdoms were yet reeking with the blood of so many thousands slain?

And yet these two great rivals had an interview in the road of Aigues-Mortes. This meeting had been mediated by the pope after the conclusion of a

36 Ancient and Modern History.

truce. Charles even came on shore, paid the first visit, and put himself into the hands of his declared enemy : this was the consequence of the spirit of the times. Charles always distrusted the promises of the monarch ; but he trusted without scruple to the honor of the knight.

The duke of Savoy was for a long time the vic¬ tim of this interview. These two monarchs, who, although they met with so much familiarity, were always concerting measures against each other, kept possession of the duke’s places ; the king of France, to secure himself a passage, if necessary, into the duchy of Milan, and the emperor to prevent him from it.

In 1539, Charles V., after this interview at Aigues- Mortes, made a journey to Paris, which is far more surprising than those of the emperors Sigismund and Charles IV.

At his return to Spain he heard that the city of Ghent, in Flanders, had revolted. How far this city had a right to maintain its privileges, and how far it had abused them, was a problem that force only could solve. Charles, impatient to reduce and punish it, for this purpose demanded of the king a passage through his dominions. Francis sent the dauphin and the duke of Orleans to conduct him as far as Bayonne, and went in person to meet him at Chatellerault.

The emperor, who was fond of travelling, took pleasure in showing himself to all the people of

Conduct of Francis I.

37

Europe, and indulging in the glory he had acquired. This journey was a continued series of feasting and merriment, and was undertaken for the sake of hanging twenty-four poor citizens. He might easily have spared himself so much fatigue, by sending a few troops to the regent of the Low Countries; and it may even seem surprising that he had not left a sufficient number in Flanders to suppress this revolt; but it was the custom of those times to disband the troops immediately after a truce or a peace.

The design of Francis I., in receiving the emperor in his dominions with so much parade and civility, was to obtain from him at length a promise of the investiture of the duchy of Milan ; and it was in this idle view that he refused the homage offered him by the inhabitants of Ghent : but he neither got Ghent nor Milan.

It has been pretended that Constable de Mont¬ morency lost the king’s favor for having advised him to be content with a verbal promise from Charles. I relate this trifling event, because, if true, it shows the human heart. A person who has no one to blame but himself if he has followed evil counsel is frequently unjust enough to condemn the author ; but there was no reason to repent of not having exacted a mere verbal promise from Charles V. ; a promise in writing would not have been more binding.

Francis himself had promised under his hand to

38 Ancient and Modern History.

give up Burgundy, and yet he was very far from abiding by that promise. A prince seldom gives up a large province to his enemy without being forced to it by arms. The emperor afterward owned pub¬ licly that he had promised the duchy of Milan to one of the king’s sons ; but insisted, at the same time, that it was only on condition that Francis should evacuate Turin, which he had still continued to keep.

The generous reception which the king had given the emperor in France, so many sumptuous feasts, and all that show of confidence and friendship on both sides, ended at last only in fresh wars.

While Solyman was still continuing to ravage Hungary, and while Charles V., to put the finishing touch to his glory, resolved to conquer the kingdom of Algiers, as he had done that of Tunis, and failed in the undertaking, Francis I. renewed more strictly his alliance with Solyman. He sent two ministers privately to the pope, through Venice. These minis¬ ters were assassinated on their way, by order of Marquis del Vasto, governor of Milan, under pre¬ tence that they were the emperor’s subjects. Fran¬ cis Sforza, the last duke of Milan, had some years before caused another of the king’s ministers to be beheaded. How are we to reconcile these breaches of the law of nations with the generosity on which the officers of both princes piqued themselves ? In I54I. the war was renewed with more animosity than ever, on the side of Piedmont, in the Pyrenees,

Conduct of Francis I.

39

and in Picardy. It was at this time that the king’s galleys joined those of Cheredin, surnamed Bar- barossa, the sultan’s admiral, and viceroy of Algiers. In 1543, the fleur-de-lis and the crescent flew jointly before the city of Nice, which, however, held out against all the attempts of the French and Turks, who were commanded by the count of Enghien, of the Bourbon family, and the Turkish admiral; and, the famous Andrew Doria coming to its relief with his galleys, Barbarossa returned with his fleet to Toulon.

This is the Doria who may deservedly be reckoned the chief of all those who assisted the fortunes of Charles V. He had the glory of defeating his gal¬ leys before Naples, when admiral in the service of Francis I., and while his country, Genoa, was still under the French dominion. Like Constable Bourbon, he thought himself obliged by the court intrigues to go over to the emperor’s service. He several tir '.s challenged the sultan’s fleets to com¬ bat ; but his chief honor was having restored liberty to his country < f which Charles V. permitted him to be so* ereign. But he preferred the title of “ Deliverer ” to that of “ Master,” and established the government as it now exists, and lived till the age of ninety-four, with the greatest reputation of any man in Europe. After his death the Genoese erected a statue to his memory, as deliverer of his country.

In the meantime the count of Enghien repaired

40 Arcient and Modern History.

the disgrace of Nice, by the victory which he gained over Marqu s del Vasto at Cerisoles in Piedmont. There never was a victory more complete, and yet the conquerors gained no advantage from it.1 It was the fate of the French to conquer to no purpose in Italy, as the battles of Agnadello, Fornovo, Ravenna, Marignano, and Cerisoles, will eternally witness.

Henry VIII., by an inconceivable fatality, entered into an alliance against France with that emperor whose aunt he had put away in so shameful a man¬ ner, and whose nephew he had declared a bastard, and who had in revenge caused Pope Clement VII. to excommunicate him. Princes can at the voice of interest equally forget injuries and benefits: but in this case it seems to have been rather caprice than interest that induced Henry VIII. to join Charles V.

1 It was not without great difficulty that the king’s general, Enghien, obtained leave to hazard a battle, on the issue of which the r reservation of France in a great measure depended. When Blaise de Montluc prevailed upon the king to comply with the duke’s request, the count de St. Pol said to him : “ Madman, thou art going to be author of the greatest advantage or the greatest misfortune which can happen to thy country.”

The imperialists were more numerous than the French by ten thousand men ; yet they suffered a total over¬ throw, and great numbers of them were put to the sword. The fruit which Francis reaped from this victory was the reduction of Carignano, Montcallier, St. Damian, Vigon, Pont d’Esture, and the greater part of Montferrat, as well as the opportunity of detaching a body of troops from this army to cover Picardy and Champagne, into which the emperor and the king of England were on the point of penetrating.

Conduct of Francis I.

4i

Henry proposed marching to Paris with an army of thirty thousand men. He besieged Boulogne by sea, while Charles was advancing into Picardy. What had become of the balance of power which Henry was so fond of holding? His only object was to embarrass Francis I. and thereby prevent him from throwing any obstacles in the way of the marriage which he had projected between his son, Edward, and Mary Stuart of Scotland, who was afterward queen of France. What a reason this was for declaring war.

These new dangers destroyed all the fruits of the victory of Cerisoles. The French king was obliged to recall a great part of that victorious army for the defence of the southern frontiers of the kingdom.

France was now in greater danger than she had ever been. Charles had already advanced as far as Soissons, the king of England had taken Boulogne, and Paris itself began to tremble. Lutheranism now proved the safety of France, and was of more service to her than the Turks, on whom the king had placed so much dependence. The Lutheran princes of Ger¬ many all joined in arms against Charles V., whom they began to fear would become despotic. Charles pressing France, and pressed by the empire, con¬ cluded a peace, in 1544, at Crespy in Valois, to turn his arms against his German subjects.

By this peace he again promised the duchy of Milan to the duke of Orleans, the king’s son, who was to be his son-in-law; but destiny would not

42 Ancient and Modern History.

permit a prince of France to have possession of this province ; and the death of the duke of Orleans saved the emperor the confusion of once more breaking his word.

In 1546, Francis I. purchased a peace with Eng¬ land for eight hundred thousand crowns. These were his last exploits, and these the fruits of the designs he had all his lifetime been forming upon Naples and Milan. He was in everything the vic¬ tim of the good fortune of Charles V., for he died some months after Henry VIII., of that almost incurable distemper which had at that time been transplanted into Europe by the discovery of the new world. Such is the concatenation of events ! A Genoese pilot gave a new world to Spain. Nature had placed in the islands of these distant climes a poison which infects the springs of life, and by which a king of France was destined to perish. At his death he left a lasting dissension behind him, not between France and Germany, but between the houses of France and Austria.

CHAPTER CV.

TROUBLES IN GERMANY - BATTLE OF MUHLBERG -

GREATNESS, DISGRACE, AND ABDICATION OF CHARLES

THE FIFTH.

The death of Francis I. did not level the way to that universal monarchy to which Charles V. is said to have aspired. That prince was still far from it; he

43

Troubles in Germany.

not only had a formidable enemy in Henry II., who succeeded Francis on the throne of France; but at that time also the princes and cities of Germany, which had embraced the new religion, raised a civil war, and assembled a large army against him. It was rather the party of liberty than that of Luther¬ anism.

This emperor, deemed so powerful, was not able, even with the assistance of his brother Ferdinand, king of Hungary and Bohemia, to raise as large an army of Germans as the confederates could bring into the field. Charles was therefore obliged, in order to raise an equal force, to have recourse to his Spaniards, and to borrow money and troops of Pope Paul III.

Nothing could be more complete and glorious than the victory he gained over the army of the confed¬ erates at Miihlberg. The elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of Hesse were among the number of his prisoners ; the Lutheran party were thrown into the greatest consternation, the conquered were loaded with immense taxes, and, in short, all together seemed to render him despotic in Germany ; but the same thing now happened to him as after the taking of Francis I. ; he lost all the fruits of his good for¬ tune. Pope Paul, who had so much befriended him before his victory, withdrew his troops as soon as he saw him become too powerful ; and Henry VIII. of England spirited up the languishing remains of the Lutheran party in Germany. The new elector of

44 Ancient and Modern History.

Saxony, Maurice, on whom Charles had bestowed the duchy of the conquered elector, soon declared against him, and even put himself at the head of the League.

At length this emperor, who had been so terri¬ ble to all Europe, is on the point of being made prisoner, with his brother, by the confederates, and is obliged to fly with the utmost precipitation and disorder to the defiles of Innsbruck. At the same time the French king, Henry II. seized Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which have ever since remained in the house of France, as the reward of having secured the Germanic liberty. Thus we see that the grandees of the empire, and even the Lutheran religion itself, have in all times owed their preser¬ vation to the kings of France. The same thing happened afterward under Ferdinand II. and Ferdi¬ nand III.

And now the possessor of Mexico was obliged to borrow two hundred thousand gold crowns from Cosmo, duke of Florence, to endeavor to recover Metz ; and having compromised matters with the Lutherans, that he might be more at liberty to avenge himself on the French king, he laid siege to that city, with an army of fifty thousand men. This is one of the most memorable sieges we meet with in history, and has immortalized the reputation of Francis of Guise, who, in 1552, defended the town sixty-five days against the emperor’s army, and at

Troubles in Germany. 45

length obliged him to abandon his design, after los¬ ing one-third of his forces.

The power of Charles V. was at that time a vast heap of honors and dignities, surrounded on all sides by precipices. The troubles he was engaged in all his lifetime would never permit him to form his large dominions into a strong and compact body, whose parts might all mutually assist one another, and supply him with a numerous army kept con¬ stantly on foot. This Charlemagne happily effected : but then his dominions lay all contiguous ; and after having conquered the Saxons and Lombards, he had not a Solyman to repulse ; he had no king of France to fight against, nor had he the powerful princes of Germany, and a pope still more powerful, to sup¬ press or fear.

Charles knew full well what kind of cement was required to raise an edifice equal in strength to the greatness of Charlemagne. It was necessary that his son Philip should have the empire ; then, as the mines of Mexico and Peru made him richer than all the other kings of Europe put together, he might have arrived at that universal monarchy which is much easier imagined than attained.

In this Charles employed his utmost endeavors to persuade his brother Ferdinand, king of the Romans, to cede the empire to Philip ; but so disagreeable a proposal only served to set Ferdinand and Philip at variance forever.

At length, wearied with so many efforts, grown

4 6 Ancient and Modern History.

old before his time, and undeceived in everything, after having attempted everything, he resigned his crowns,1 and renounced the society of mankind at the age of fifty-fonr, a time of life in which the age and ambition of other men are in their full vigor, and when many inferior princes begin to appoint their ministers, and enter the career of their great¬ ness.

Before I proceed to take a view of the influence which Philip II. had over one-half of Europe, the great power of the English under Queen Elizabeth, and what was the fate of Italy, in what manner the republic of the United Provinces was established, and the dreadful condition to which the kingdom of France was reduced, I judge it necessary to speak of the revolutions which happened in religion, as this had had a principal share in all affairs, either as a cause or pretence, ever since the time of Charles V.

I shall then give a sketch of the conquests of the

1 Charles published an act of his abdication in the Latin tongue; then he sent the imperial ornaments to his brother Ferdinand, took leave of all the ambassadors that attended his court, thanked his officers, and recommended them to his son Philip; repaired to Zealand, from whence he sailed to the port of Laredo, in Biscay, and set out for the place of his retreat, which was the monastery of Yuste, situated on the frontiers of Castile, in the province of Estremadura, a most romantic valley, surrounded with agreeable hills. Here he lived seemingly happy, as a pri¬ vate person, about eighteen months, and died in the year 1558, at the age of fifty-seven. Some authors allege that he lived long enough in this retreat to repent heartily of his abdication. But this is no other than a surmise.

Leo X. and the Church.

47

Spaniards in America, and of those made by the Portuguese in the Indies ; miraculous events, of which Philip II. reaped the whole benefit, and by which he became the most powerful monarch in Christendom.

CHAPTER CVI.

LEO X. AND THE CHURCH.

You have taken a survey of that vast chaos in which the Christian states of Europe were confusedly plunged, from the time of the downfall of the Roman Empire. The political government of the Church, which to all appearances should have united these divided parts, was unhappily a fresh source of con¬ fusion, hitherto unknown in the annals of the world. The Church of Rome and that of Greece were at continual variance, and by their disputes had opened the gates of Constantinople to the Ottoman power.

The empire and the pontificate, which were con¬ tinually in arms against each other, had laid waste Italy, Germany, and almost all the other states of Christendom. The mixture of these two powers, which were always opposing each other either secretly or publicly, proved the source of everlasting dissensions. The feudal government had made sov¬ ereigns of several bishops and monks. The limits of their dioceses were different from those of the state ; the same city was Italian or German as to its bishop, and French as to its king. You have seen

48 Ancient and Modern History.

in what manner the secular jurisdiction was in every¬ thing opposed to the ecclesiastic, except in those dominions where the Church was, and still is, supreme ; how every secular prince endeavored to render his government independent of the see of Rome, without being able to effect it. You have seen the bishops sometimes opposing the pope, and at others uniting with him against crowned heads ; in a word, the whole republic of the Latin com¬ munion was almost always unanimous in point of doctrine, and perpetually at variance in every other respect.

After the detestable, but successful, pontificate of Alexander VI., and after the military, and still more happy, reign of Pope Julius II., the popes might with justice consider themselves as the masters of Italy, and the influencers of the rest of Europe. No other Italian power possessed larger territories, except the king of Naples, who was still a feudatory of the papal crown.

Under these favorable circumstances, the twenty- four cardinals, who at that time composed the whole college, in 1513, raised to the pontificate John de Medici, great-great-grandson of the famous Cosmo de Medici, who was a private merchant, and the father of his country.

John de Medici, who took the name of Leo X., was made a cardinal when he was only fourteen, and was elected pope before he was thirty-six years old. His family had then returned to Tuscany, and Leo

Leo X. and the Church. 49

soon had interest enough to place his brother, Peter, at the head of the administration in Florence. He married his other brother, Julian, surnamed the Magnificent, to the princess of Savoy, who was also duchess of Nemours, and made him one of the most powerful noblemen of Italy. These three broth¬ ers, who had been educated under Angelus Poli- tianus and Calcondilas, were all truly worthy of such masters, and vied with one another in cultivat¬ ing learning and the liberal arts ; so that this age deserves to be called the Medicean age. The pontiff, in particular, united the most refined taste with an unparalleled magnificence. He encouraged great geniuses in all the arts by his bounty and engaging behavior. His coronation cost one hundred thou¬ sand gold crowns. On this occasion he had the Penula of Plautus acted, and the glorious days of the Roman Empire seemed revived under him. All austerity was banished from religion, which now acquired the respect of everyone by the most pomp¬ ous ceremonies. The barbarous style of the Datary was entirely laid aside, to make room for the elo¬ quence of Cardinals Bembo and Sadolet, at that time secretaries of the briefs, men who imitated the Latinity of Cicero, and seemed to adopt his skeptical philosophy. The comedies of Aristophanes and Machiavelli, void as they are of modesty and piety, were frequently played at this court in presence of the pope and his cardinals, by young people of the

best quality in Rome. The merit alone of these Vol. 27 — 4

50 Ancient and Modern History.

works — held in high esteem in this age — rendered them agreeable ; and what might appear offensive to religion in them was not perceived by a court wholly taken up with intrigues and pleasures, and which thought that religion stood in no danger from these trifling liberties. And, indeed, as neither the doctrine nor the power of the Church were here con¬ cerned, the court of Rome was no more offended at them than the ancient Greeks and Romans were at the jokes of Aristophanes and Plautus.

Though Leo X. was perfectly absolute in serious affairs, he never suffered them to break in upon his more delicate pleasures. Even the conspiracy formed against his life by two of his cardinals, and the exemplary punishment he inflicted on them, made no alteration in the gayety of his court.

Cardinals Petrucci and Soli, incensed against the pope for having taken the duchy of Urbino from the nephew of Julius II., bribed a surgeon who used to dress a secret ulcer of the pope’s, and the death of this pontiff was to be the signal of a revolution in several of the cities of the ecclesiastical state. The plot, however, was discovered, and several of those concerned in it put to death, in 1517. The two car¬ dinals were put to the torture, and afterward con¬ demned to die. Cardinal Petrucci was hanged in prison, and the other purchased his life with his riches.

It is very remarkable, that they were condemned by the secular magistrates of Rome, and not their

Leo X. and the Church. 5 1

peers. I he pope, by this action, seemed to invite all the crowned heads to make the clergy subject to the ordinary courts of justice, but the holy see never thought of yielding to kings a right which it assumed to itself. How comes it that the cardinals, who have the electing of popes, have left them in possession of this despotic power, while the electors and the princes of the empire have so much cur¬ tailed the power of the emperors? The reason is, that these princes have dominions, and the cardinals have only dignities.

This melancholy event soon gave place to the customary amusements. Leo X., in order to wipe away the remembrance of a cardinal condemned to die by the halter, created thirty new ones, most of them Italians, and of the same disposition as their master ; and though they might not have quite so good taste, or so much learning, as the pontiff, they at least came very near to him in the indul¬ gence of their pleasures. Their example was fol¬ lowed by most of the prelacy. Spain was at that time the only country where the Church still adhered to a severity of manners, which had been introduced by Cardinal Ximenes, a man of austere and morose disposition, who had no taste but for absolute author¬ ity, and who, when regent of Spain, went always dressed in the habit of a cordelier, and was wont to say that he could bind all the grandees of the kingdom to their duty by his cord, and crush their pride beneath his sandals.

52 Ancient and Modern History.

In every other country the prelates lived with all the voluptuousness of princes ; some of them were in possession of eight or nine bishoprics at once. It is astonishing to reckon the number of benefices enjoyed by some of them at that time; such as Cardinal Wolsey and the cardinal of Lorraine, and many others ; but this multitude of church livings heaped on a single person had no worse consequences then, than the number of bishoprics now held by the electors or prelates of Germany.

All writers, both Protestant and Catholic, greatiy inveigh against the general depravity of manners in those times. They tell us that the prelates, curates, and monks led the most easy and happy lives ; and nothing was more common than for prelates to bring up their children in a public manner, after the exam¬ ple of Alexander VI. It is certain, that there is yet extant the will of one Croui, at that time bishop of Cambray, in which he leaves several legacies to his children, and reserves a sum “ for the bastards which he hopes God will be pleased to give him, in case he should recover from his illness.” These are the very words of the will. Pope Pius II. had long before that declared in writing, that, for very good rea¬ sons, priests had been forbidden to marry ; but that, for still better reasons, it ought to be allowed them. The Protestants have carefully collected facts which prove, that in several of the states of Germany, the people obliged their ministers to keep mistresses, that their wives might remain in greater security: but

Leo X. and the Church.

53

still it must be owned, that this was no reason for authorizing so many civil wars, nor for killing other men because the priests begot children.

But that which most disgusted the public was the granting of general and particular indulgences, abso¬ lutions, and dispensations, at all prices. This kind of apostolic tax was uncertain and unlimited before the time of Pope John XXII., who first settled it, and reduced it to a code of the canon law. A deacon or sub-deacon who had been guilty of murder was absolved, and had permission to hold three benefices for twelve livres tournois, three ducats, and six carlines, which is about twenty crowns. A bishop and an abbot might commit murder for about three hundred livres, and the most unnatural or indecent acts had their stated price. Bestiality was assessed at two hundred and fifty livres ; dispensations might be purchased, not only for sins actually committed, but even for those which a person might have an inclination to commit. There has been found, in the archives of Joinville, a reversionary indulgence for the cardinal of Lorraine, and twelve persons of his retinue, by which each of them had the choice of any three sins they chose to commit. Le Laboureur, a very exact writer, says that the duchess of Bourbon and Auvergne, sister of Charles VIII., had a right to claim absolution for herself, and for ten persons of her retinue, for all the sins they should commit, during their lives, on forty-seven holidays in the year, exclusive of Sundays.

54 Ancient and Modern History.

This strange abuse seems to have had its origin in the ancient laws of the European nations, and of the Franks, Saxons, and Burgundians. The court of Rome did not adopt this rating of sins and dis¬ pensations till the times of anarchy, and when the popes no longer dared to reside at Rome. No coun¬ cil ever made a tax on sins an article of faith.

Among these abuses some were oppressive, and others ridiculous. Those who said that the super¬ structure should be repaired without totally destroy¬ ing it seemed to have said all that could be offered in answer to the complaints of an incensed people. The great number of masters of families, who are continually laboring to secure a moderate compe¬ tency for their wives and children ; and the still greater number of artificers and laborers, who earn their bread by the sweat of their brows, could not without concern behold those lazy monks fattening in the midst of luxury, and leading the lives of princes. It was answered that the money expended in this luxury returned again into the general circu¬ lation. The effeminate lives of these priests, far from disturbing the inward peace of the Church, rather strengthened it, and their very excesses, had they even been carried to a greater length, would certainly have been less dangerous than the horrors of war, and the sacking of towns. Here may be interposed what is said by Machiavelli, the celebrated doctor, of those who understand nothing but politics. He says in his discourse on Titus Livius, that the

Leo X. and the Church.

55

excessive wickedness of the Italians of his time, was to be imputed to religion and the priests. But it is clear, that he cannot by this mean the wars raised on account of religion, since there were none at that time ; he can only refer to the wickedness of Alex¬ ander VI. and his court, and the ambition of certain churchmen, which is very foreign to the doctrines, the disputes, persecutions, rebellions, and that bloody animosity among the divines, which produced so many murders.

We are told that the republic of Venice itself, whose government was esteemed the wisest in Europe, took great pains to indulge all its clergy in a life of pleasure and dissipation, so that by being less respected among the people, they might not have the power to raise commotions. There were, nevertheless, in all places men of exemplary purity of manners, pastors truly worthy of that title, and monks who from their hearts, submitted to those vows of austerity which shock the effeminate mind : but these virtues are buried in obscurity, while lux¬ ury and vice lord it in splendor.

The pleasures which surrounded the voluptuous court of Leo X. could not escape attention; but at the same time it was easily perceived that this very court contributed to civilize Europe, and render mankind more sociable. After the persecution against the Hussites, religion no longer raised any troubles in the world. The Inquisition exercised great cru¬ elties in Spain upon the Jews and Mahometans, but

56 Ancient and Modern History.

these were not such* general misfortunes as subvert nations. The greater part of the Christians lived in a happy ignorance; and there were not perhaps in all Europe ten gentlemen who had Bibles. This book had not been translated into the vulgar tongue, or at least the translations made of it in a few coun¬ tries were entirely unknown.

The higher clergy, wholly occupied in temporal matters, knew how to enjoy their good fortune, and never troubled themselves with religious disputes. It may be said that Pope Leo X., by the encour¬ agement he gave to learning, furnished arms against himself. I have been told by an English nobleman, that he had seen a letter from Cardinal Pole to this pope, in which, while he is felicitating his holiness upon having extended the progress of the sciences in Europe, he gives him to understand that it was dan¬ gerous to make men too knowing. Leo X. was far from having any apprehensions from the change he saw in Christendom, of which his magnificence and one of the noblest undertakings that could dignify a prince were the principal causes.

Plis predecessor, Julius II., under whose pon¬ tificate painting and architecture began to make such great advances, resolved that Rome should have a temple which might not only surpass the famous one of St. Sophia at Constantinople, but be one of the most magnificent edifices yet erected in the world ; and he had the resolution to undertake what he could never hope to see completed. Leo X.

Leo X. and the Church.

57

warmly pursued this noble scheme ; it required immense sums, and his magnificence had already drained his treasury. Every Christian should have contributed to the raising of this wonder of the capital of Europe ; but the sums requisite for carry¬ ing on public works are not raised without great art or force. Leo X. had recourse, if I may be allowed the expression, to one of St. Peter’s keys, which had on other occasions been made use of to open the coffers of the public, and fill those of the popes.

He pretended a war against the Turks, and ordered a sale of indulgences to be made through all the states of Christendom. An indulgence is a deliverance from the pains of purgatory, either in person, or for one’s friends or relatives. A. public sale of this kind shows the spirit of the times. No one was surprised at it ; there were offices for indul¬ gences in every part, and they were established in the same manner as the customs. Most of the col¬ lectors used to hold their offices in taverns. The preacher, the person who farmed them, and he who distributed them, had each a profit upon them. The pope gave part of the money arising from them to his sister, and yet nobody murmured at it. The preachers used to declare openly from the pulpit, that if any one had even ravished the Holy Virgin, he might have absolution by purchasing these indulgences ; and the people listened to such speeches with the utmost devotion. But when the farm of this tax was given to the Dominican friars in Germany,

58 Ancient and Modern History.

the Augustines, who had long been in possession of it, became jealous; and the private interest of a few monks in a corner of Saxony produced more than two hundred years of discord, rage, and misfortunes among thirty kingdoms.

CHAPTERS CVII. and CVIII.

LUTHER AND ZUINGLIUS.

You cannot but know that this mighty revolution in the human mind, and in the political system of Europe, was begun by Martin Luther, an Augustine monk, whom his superiors engaged to preach against those commodities which they could not dispose of. The dispute was at first between the two orders of the Augustines and Dominicans.

Had anyone told Luther at that time that he would subvert the Roman Catholic religion in almost half of Europe, he would not have believed it. He went further than he thought for, as is the case in all disputes, and in almost all transactions.

After having cried down indulgences, he, in 1517, proceeded to examine the power of him who granted them. The veil was now partly drawn aside; the people were stirred up, and resolved to judge for themselves of what had been so long the object of their implicit reverence. Even all the horrors com¬ mitted by Alexander VI. and his family had not raised the least doubt about the spiritual power of the pope ; three hundred thousand pilgrims had

Luther and Zuingliu's. $g

come to Rome to attend his jubilee: but the times were changed, and the measure of iniquity was full. The pleasurable pontificate of Leo X. was punished for the crimes of Alexander VI. A reformation was first demanded, and a total separation soon followed. It was evident that men in power are not easily reformed ; it was, therefore, their authority, their wealth, and the yoke of the Roman taxes that was aimed at. In fact, how could the pleasures of the court of Rome concern the people of Stockholm, Copenhagen, London, or Dresden? But it concerned them to be relieved from their exorbitant taxes, and to prevent the archbishop of Upsal from becoming master of a kingdom. The revenues of the arch¬ bishopric of Magdeburg and several* of the rich abbeys were alluring baits to the secular princes. The separation, which arose as it were of itself, and from very slight causes, did, however, operate prin¬ cipally in bringing about the reformation so much desired, and which in the end has proved of so little effect. The manners of the court of Rome are more decent, indeed, and the clergy of France more learned ; and it must be acknowledged that the clergy in general have been improved by the Protes¬ tants, as one rival becomes more circumspect from the prying jealousy of another.

To bring about this great separation, nothing more was required than a prince capable of stirring up the people. The old elector of Saxony, Frederick, sur- named the Wise, who, after the death of Maxi-

60 Ancient and Modern History.

milian, nobly refused the imperial crown, was the declared protector of Luther. This revolution in the Church began in the same manner as all those by which the people have deposed their sovereigns ; namely, by first presenting petitions, then setting forth grievances, and lastly subverting the throne. There were no absolute marks of an intended separa¬ tion in laughing at indulgences, in requiring to par¬ take of both species at communion, in advancing some unintelligible things concerning justification and free will, in aiming at the abolition of the monk¬ ish orders, or in offering to prove that the Holy Scripture nowhere expressly mentions purgatory.

In 1520 Leo X., who in his own mind despised such disputes, was obliged, as pope, to anathematize by bull all these propositions. He did not know that England in secret powerfully supported Luther. It has been said that the best method to have made him change his opinion would have been to have sent him a cardinal’s hat ; but the contempt in which he was held proved fatal to the Church of Rome.

Luther no longer kept any measures ; he com¬ posed his book, called “ The Captivity of Babylon,” in which he exhorted all crowned heads to throw off the papal yoke, and inveighed strongly against private masses ; and this work was the more applauded, because he therein greatly condemned the public sale of these masses. They had been first brought into vogue by the mendicant monks of the thirteenth century, and were purchased by the peo-

Luther and Zuinglius. 61

pie in the same manner as they still are, whenever it is required. This was no more than a small con¬ tribution raised for the subsistence of the poor religious, and officiating priests; a kind of trifling fee, which could by no means be grudged to those who live only by alms and the altar, and which at that time amounted in France to about two sols of the current money, and not quite so much in Ger¬ many. Transubstantiation was condemned as a term not to be found in the Scriptures, nor in the writings of the primitive fathers. The followers of Luther pretended that the doctrine which teaches that the bread and wine is annihilated while the form still remains had not been universally held by the Church till the time of Pope Gregory VII., and that this doctrine had been first taught and explained by a Benedictine monk, called Pascasus Rather, in the ninth century. They turned over all the dark archives of antiquity, in search of reasons for sep¬ arating themselves from the Church of Rome, founded on mysteries which human weakness can never dive into. Luther retained some part of the mystery, and rejected the other; he owned that the body of Jesus Christ was in the consecrated elements, “ but in such manner,” said he, “ as fire may be said to be in heated iron; the fire and the iron subsist together.” This manner of confounding the body of Christ with the bread and wine is called by Osian- der, impanation, invination, and consubstantiation. Luther contented himself with saying that the body

62 Ancient and Modern History.

and blood of our Saviour was in, above, and beneath, “ in, cum, sub.”

The Dominican monks, assisted by the pope’s nun¬ cios in Germany, ordered all Luther’s books to be burned, and the pope issued a fresh bull against him. Luther in return burned the pope’s bull and the decretals in the public market-place at Wittenberg. This action shows the boldness of the man, and also that he was already very powerful. This new reformer had even then, in 1520, a great part of Germany in his interest, who, grown weary of the papal greatness, did not stand to examine nicely into scholastic propositions.

In the meantime these questions became greatly multiplied. The dispute about free will, another stumbling-block in the way of human reason, mingled its inexhaustible stream of absurd quarrels with the torrent of theological animosity. Luther himself denied the doctrine of free will, which never¬ theless has since been received by his followers. The universities of Louvain and Paris wrote in defence of it ; and the latter suspended a dispute it was then engaged in — whether there were three Magdalens, or only one Magdalen — to condemn Luther’s propositions.

Aristotle was necessarily drawn into this dispute, as the schools were at that time his disciples ; and Luther, having asserted that Aristotle’s doctrine was of no aid to understanding the Scriptures, the holy faculty at Paris condemned this assertion as erron-

Luther and Zuinglius. 63

eous, and proceeding from a madman. The most idle theses were mingled with the profoundest dis¬ putations, and the mutual hatred of both parties was kept alive by false imputations, gross abuses, and reciprocal anathemas.

One can not read without a mixture of contempt and pity the manner in which Luther treats all his opponents, and particularly the pope. “ Little pope, little popey, you are an ass, a little ass ; walk softly, it is slippery, you may break your legs, and then it will be said, ‘what the devil is all this ? ’ the little ass of a popey is crippled ; an ass knows that he is an ass, a stone knows that it is a stone ; but these little asses of popes do not know that they are asses.” These mean vulgarisms, which would nowadays be so dis¬ gusting, did not at all displease the grovelling minds of those times ; and Luther, with all this lowness of a barbarous style, triumphed in his country over the politeness of the court of Rome.

Capricious destiny, which sports with the world, ordained that Henry VIII. of England should engage in this dispute. He had been educated by his father in the idle and absurd sciences of those days.

The fiery and impetuous spirit of young Henry had greedily imbibed the subtleties of the schools. He now resolved to use his pen against Luther; but before he began, he desired Pope Leo’s permission to read the books of this arch-heretic, which had been forbidden to all Christians, under pain of excom¬ munication. Leo granted him his request; and the

64 Ancient and Modern History.

king wrote a book, in which he explained the Writ¬ ings of St. Thomas, and defended the seven sacra¬ ments against Luther, who then allowed of three only, which were afterward reduced to two. This book was written in great haste, and sent to Rome. His holiness, charmed with a work which is now read by scarcely anyone, compared it to the writings of St. Jerome and St. Augustine, and conferred the title of “ Defender of the Faith ” on King Henry and his successors. But on whom did he bestow this title? On the very man who, a few years afterward, was to become the most implacable enemy of the Church of Rome.

Luther had few followers in Italy ; that ingenious nation was too much taken up with pleasures and intrigues to engage in these disputes; nor did the Spaniards, though naturally an active and busy- people, interfere with them. The French likewise, though with the same turn as both these nations, and moreover with a strong taste for novelty, meddled with neither party. In short, the only theatre of this war of the imagination was in Germany, and in the Swiss nation, who were not at that time regarded as the most cunning people in the world, and are thought very circumspect. The learned and polite court of Rome never suspected that those she considered as a set of barbarians, could, armed with the Bible as with a sword, wrest from her one- half of Europe, and stagger the fidelity of the other.

It is a great question in politics whether Charles

Luther and Zuinglius. 65

V., at that time emperor, should have embraced the reformed religion, or have opposed it. By throw¬ ing off the papal yoke he at one blow avenged the four hundred years of oppression which the empire had undergone from the pontifical crown, and the insults it had offered to the imperial diadem ; but at the same time he ran the risk of losing all Italy. It was necessary for him to keep fair with the pope, who was to join him against Francis I. Moreover, the subjects of his hereditary dominions were all Catholics; and he is even reproached with having beheld with pleasure the rise of a faction, which gave him the opportunity of raising taxes and troops in the empire, and crushing both Catholics and Protes¬ tants beneath the weight of absolute power. At length he thought himself engaged, in politics and honor, to declare against Luther, although perhaps he was of the same opinion at heart, in relation to some articles, as was suspected by the Spaniards after his death.

He therefore summoned Luther, in 1521, to appear and give an account of his doctrine before the imperial Diet of Worms, or, in other words, to come and declare whether he maintained the tenets which had been condemned by the Church of Rome. Luther obeyed the summons, and appeared with a safe-conduct from the emperor, exposing himself boldly to the same fate as John Huss; but this as¬ sembly being wholly composed of princes, he trusted

to their honor. He spoke before the emperor and the Vol. 27—5

66 Ancient and Modern History.

diet, and defended his doctrine with great courage. It is said that Charles V. was strongly solicited by Aleandro, the pope’s nuncio, to cause Luther to be arrested, notwithstanding the safe-conduct he had granted him, exactly as Sigismund, contrary to pub¬ lic faith, had given up John Huss ; but Charles made answer that he would not, like Sigismund, do anything he should have reason to be ashamed of.

Luther, notwithstanding that he had the emperor, the king of England, the pope and all the bishops and monks against him, was not in the least dismayed ; but hidden in a stronghold in Saxony, he braved the emperor, exasperated half of Germany against the pope, answered the king of England as he would an equal, and strengthened and extended his newly raised Church.

The old elector of Saxony, Frederick, earnestly wished the extirpation of the Romish Church ; Luther thought this a proper time to abolish private masses, and he set about it in a manner which, in times of greater knowledge, would not have met with extraordinary approbation. Lie pretended that the devil had appeared to him, and reproached him with saying private masses and with consecrating. The devil, he said, proved to him that it was an idolatrous custom ; and then he concluded his tale with saying that he acknowledged the devil to be in the right, and that he should be believed. Accordingly mass was laid aside in the city of Wittenberg, and soon afterward in all the other places of Saxony. The

Luther and Zuinglius. 67

images were pulled down; the religious of both sexes left their cloisters ; and in a few years Luther himself was married to a nun named Catherine Bore. The priests of the old communion reproached him with not being able to live without a wife, and Luther accused them of not being able to live without mistresses. These mutual reproaches were very dif¬ ferent ; the Catholic priests, accused of incontinence, were obliged to own that they transgressed the whole church discipline ; whereas Luther and his followers had only made a change in it.

The law of history obliges us to do justice to the greater part of those monks who left their churches and their cloisters to enter into matrimony. It is true they resumed a liberty of which they had before made a sacrifice, and they broke their vows ; but they were not libertines in their lives, nor could anyone reproach them with giving offence by their behavior. By the same impartial rule we are under the necessity of remarking that Luther and his monks, by contracting marriages which were useful to the state, were no more guilty of a violation of their vows than those who, having made profession of poverty and humility, continue in the enjoyment of vainglorious riches.

Among the number of things alleged against Luther, it was said by several, by way of irony, that he who had taken the devil’s advice in overthrowing mass, showed his gratitude to him by abolishing the practice of exorcisms, and aimed at levelling all the

68 Ancient and Modern History.

bulwarks which had been raised to keep out the enemy of mankind. It has been remarked since that in all those countries where exorcisms have been laid aside, they have no longer heard of witchcraft or persons possessed by the devil ; and it has been said, both in words and writing, that the devils knew little of their own interest in taking refuge among the Catholics, who alone have the power of com¬ manding them. It has also been observed that there is a prodigious number of magicians and possessed people in the Romish communion, even to this day. However, this is too serious a subject to divert one¬ self with; for it was certainly a very melancholy affair, that proved the ruin of so many families, and caused the punishment of a number of unfortunate wretches, as it is a great happiness to mankind that the courts of justice, in the more enlightened countries, no longer give ear to idle stories of fas¬ cinations and magic. Those of the reformed religion renewed this stumbling-block more than two hun¬ dred years before the Catholics, for which they were accused of striking at the foundation of the Christian religion; and it was objected to them that posses¬ sions by demons and witchcrafts are expressly admit¬ ted by the Holy Scriptures; that Christ Himself drove out evil spirits, and in a particular manner sent His apostles to do the same in His name. To this powerful objection the Protestants made the same answer as all prudent magistrates do at this time; that God permitted some things in former times

Luther and Zuinglius. 69

which he does not permit at present ; and that the Church stood in need of miracles at her first insti¬ tution, which, now that she is perfectly established, she has no longer occasion for.

The next country into which this new sect, known by the name of the Primitive Church, extended itself, was Switzerland. Zuinglius, curate of Zurich, went still further than Luther ; for he admitted neither of impanation nor invination. He would not allow that God entered into the bread and wine, much less that the whole body of Christ was wholly and entirely in every morsel and drop of the elements. In France they gave him the name of “ Sacramentarian,” which appellation was at first extended to all the Protest¬ ants of his sect.

Zuinglius drew upon himself the abuse of all the clergy of his country. The affair was brought before the magistracy, in 1523, and the senate of Zurich examined the cause, as if it had related to an inheritance. It was then put to vote, and the majority were for the reformers. The people were waiting in crowds for the senate’s decree, when the town clerk came out and acquainted them that Zuing¬ lius had gained his cause ; upon which they in an instant became of the senate’s religion. Thus a vil¬ lage of Switzerland sat in judgment upon the Church of Rome. Happy people, after all ! whose simplicity referred to its magistrates that which neither the magistrates, nor themselves, nor Zuinglius could by any means be perfect judges of.

70 Ancient and Modern History.

A few years later, in 1528, the magistracy of Berne, which town is the same in Switzerland as Amsterdam is in the United Provinces, entered into a more solemn trial of this cause, and the senate, after hearing both sides for the space of two months, condemned the Romish religion. The decree was received without difficulty by the whole canton ; and a pillar was erected, on which this solemn sentence was engraved in letters of gold, and it has ever since continued in full force.

The senates of Berne and Zurich had now given the people a new religion; but at Basel the people imposed it upon the senate. There were at that time thirteen Swiss cantons ; the five smallest and poorest of these, namely Lucerne, Zug, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, which remained firm to the Catholic communion, began a civil war against the others. This was the first religious war between the Catholics and those of the reformed religion. In 1531 Zuing- lius put himself at the head of the Protestant army, and was slain in the engagement. He was deemed a holy martyr by his own party, and an execrable heretic by the opposite one. The Catholics after their victory caused his body to be quartered by the executioner, and thrown into a fire. These were only the preludes to those extremes of fury into which both parties afterward ran.

The famous Zuinglius,1 in establishing his sect,

1 Zuinglius insisted on free will, whereas Luther adhered to grace. Calvin adopted the doctrines of grace and pre-

Luther and Zuinglius. 71

seemed more zealous for the cause of liberty than that of religion. He held it sufficient to be virtuous to merit eternal happiness, and that Cato, St. Paul, Numa, and Abraham enjoyed an equal portion of felicity. His religion was afterward called Calvin¬ ism, Calvin having given it his name, as Americus Vespucius gave his to the New World, first discov¬ ered by Columbus. Thus, in the space of a few years, there arose three new churches — that of Luther, that of Zuinglius, and the Church of England, all separated from the centre of union, and governed by their own laws. The Church of France, though it had never broken with its head, was nevertheless looked upon at Rome as a separate member, with regard to several points ; such as the superiority of councils, the fallibility of the chief pontiff, some of the episcopal rights, the power of legates, the nom¬ ination to church livings, and the tributes paid to the holy see. The great society of Christendom resem¬ bled in one respect the heathen empires, which were in the beginning very poor republics ; these repub¬ lics in time became rich monarchies, and these mon¬ archies afterward lost some of their provinces, which became republics.

destination, consequently Calvinism was different from the religion of Zuinglius.

72

Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER CIX.

LUTHERANISM IN SWEDEN, DENMARK, AND GERMANY.

Denmark and all Sweden embraced the Lutheran religion. The Swedes listened chiefly to the dictates of revenge in throwing off the episcopal yoke of the Romish Church in 1523. They had long been oppressed by their bishops, especially by the arch¬ bishops of Upsala, who were primates of the king¬ dom ; and they were still full of indignation at the remembrance of the cruelties which had been com¬ mitted three years before by Archbishop Trolle. This prelate, who was minister to and accomplice of Chris¬ tian II., surnamed the Nero of the North, and the tyrant of Denmark and Sweden, was a monster cf cruelty, as detestable as Christian himself. He had obtained from the pope a bull against the senate of Stockholm, who had opposed his depredations and Christian’s usurpations ; but everything was now quiet, and the two tyrants, Christian and his arch¬ bishop, had sworn upon the Gospel to forget what had passed. The king gave an entertainment in his palace to two of the bishops, all the members of the senate, and ninety-four of the principal noblemen. The tables were all covered, and they were in the midst of their festivity and joy, when Christian and the archbishop arose from table and left the room, but presently returned again, followed by a band of armed men and executioners ; and the archbishop

73

Progress of Lutheranism.

holding the pope’s bull in his hand, gave orders to put all the guests to death. They ripped open the breast of the grand prior of the Order of Jerusalem, and plucked out his heart. The tyrants concluded their bloody feast by a massacre of all the common people, without distinction of age or sex.

These two monsters, who deserved to perish by the punishment which they inflicted on the grand prior, died in their beds. Christian, however, was driven from the throne. The famous Gustavus Vasa delivered his country from this tyrant, as we have already shown under the article on “ Sweden ; ” and the four estates of the kingdom having decreed him the crown, he was one of the foremost to exterminate a religion, which had been made the means of com¬ mitting such execrable crimes.

Lutheranism was soon established without opposi¬ tion in Sweden and Denmark, immediately upon the tyrant's being driven from the throne of these two kingdoms.

Luther now saw himself the apostle of the North, and enjoyed his glory in peace. In 1525 the domin¬ ions of Saxony, Brunswick, and Hesse, and the cities of Strasburg and Frankfort embraced his doctrine.

It is certain that the Romish Church stood in great need of reformation ; this was acknowledged by Pope Adrian himself, who succeeded Leo X., and it is as certain that if there had not been some supe¬ rior in the Christian world to determine the sense of the holy writings, and the particular tenets of

74

Ancient and Modern History.

religion, there would have been as many sects as there are men able to read. For, after all, the divine lawgiver has given us but few written rules, and his disciples have been very sparing in their instructions ; and those they have delivered are done in such a manner as makes them very difficult to be under¬ stood of themselves, almost every word being liable to a dispute.

But the Protestants of Germany, who were for fol¬ lowing the letter of the Gospel, exhibited a strange scene some few years later by dispensing with an acknowledged law which seemed established beyond the reach of attack. I mean the law by which a man is allowed only one wife, which is a positive institution, and on which depend the peace and hap¬ piness of all the states and private families of Chris¬ tendom.

Philip, landgrave of Hesse, who was the second protector of Lutheranism, wanted to marry a young lady named Catherine de Saal, while his first wife, Christina of Saxony, was yet living; and what is perhaps more extraordinary, it appears from some original papers relating to this affair that he con¬ ceived this design upon a scruple of conscience. Here is one of the wonderful examples of the weakness of the human mind. This prince, who was in other respects a wise man, and a good politician, seemed to think seriously that he might transgress a law, the justness of which he could not but acknowledge, provided he had the permission of Luther and his

75

Progress of Lutheranism.

companions. He delivered a remonstrance then to the heads of the Church, setting forth that the prin¬ cess of Saxony, his wife, “ was ugly, had offensive smells, and was frequently drunk.” After this he generously confesses in his remonstrance that he had frequently fallen into the sin of fornication, and that his constitution required those pleasures. But what is not altogether so generous, he at the same time artfully hints to his doctors that, if they refused to grant him the dispensation he requires, he may possibly ask it of the pope.

Luther assembled a small synod at Wittenberg, consisting of six of the chief Protestant ministers. They were sensible that they were about to strike at a law that was observed even by those of their own sect. The examples of polygamy formerly given by Christian princes had been looked upon by all sober Christians as a great error. And though Emperor Valentinian the elder had married Justina while his wife, Severa, was yet living; and several kings of France had had two or three wives at a time, the transgression of a law is no authority for anyone. But the synod of Wittenberg did not consider mar¬ riage as a sacrament, but only as a civil contract ; and declared that the Church allowed a divorce, though the Gospel forbade it ; and moreover that the Gospel in no place expressly enjoins the having of no more than one wife : but, in short, the scandal appeared so plain that they were glad to conceal it as much as possible from the eyes of the people. In fine, this

7 6 Ancient and Modern History.

permission for polygamy was signed, and the king was married to his mistress, even with the consent of the lawful wife herself.

Thus a thing which the popes had never dared to attempt, whose excessive power Luther had so severely attacked, was done by him, who had no power at all. This dispensation of his was at first kept private; but time reveals all secrets of this nature. This example has not, indeed, been followed since ; but the reason is that a man seldom keeps two wives at the same time in his house, on account of the rivalry between them, which would occasion continual domestic strifes, and render three persons miserable. The law which permits a plurality of wives among the eastern people is the least regarded of any by private persons. They have, indeed, sev¬ eral mistresses ; but perhaps there are not four Turks in all Constantinople that have a number of wives.

It would have been happy for the world if the innovations in religion had produced only scandals of this peaceable nature; but Germany became the theatre of the most bloody tragedies.

CHAPTER CX.

THE ANABAPTISTS.

Two men, natives of Saxony, whose names were Storck and Miinzer, making use of some passages in Scripture, where it is said that no man is a disciple

The Anabaptists. 77

of Christ unless he has received the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, pretended to be inspired themselves.

These were the first enthusiasts we hear of in these times ; they insisted that all children should be bap¬ tized over again, because Christ did not receive bap¬ tism till he was an adult; from this doctrine they acquired the name of Anabaptists. They declared themselves inspired, and sent to reform the Romish and Lutheran communions, and destroy everyone who opposed the gospel they preached; founding their assertions on these words in Holy Writ: “ I am not come to bring peace into the world, but a sword.”

Luther had been successful in stirring up the princes, noblemen, and magistrates of Germany against the pope and the bishops. Miinzer stirred up the peasants against them all. He and his com¬ panions went about addressing themselves to the inhabitants of the country villages in Suabia, Meis¬ sen, Thuringia, and Franconia. They laid open that dangerous truth which is implanted in every breast, that mankind are all born equal, saying that if the popes had treated the princes like their subjects, the princes had treated the common people like beasts.

It must be acknowledged that the demands made by the Anabaptists and delivered in writing in the name of the husbandmen and laborers were extremely just; but it was letting loose so many wild bears to make even a reasonable manifesto in their name. The cruelties which we have already

78 Ancient and Modern History.

seen exercised by the commons of France and Eng¬ land in the time of Charles VI. were now revived in Germany, and carried to a greater height of fury by the spirit of fanaticism. These tribes of savage beasts, while they preached equality and reformation, committed the most dreadful ravages in all the places where they came, from Saxony to Lorraine ; but at length they met with the common fate of all rioters who have not a skilful leader. After having com¬ mitted the most shocking disorders, they were at length exterminated by the regular troops. Miinzer, who had set himself up for a new Mahomet, perished upon a scaffold at Miilhausen. Luther, who had no actual share in these excesses, but who was nev¬ ertheless the primary cause of them, though unwil¬ lingly, by having been the first who levelled the bounds of submission, lost no part of his credit or reputation, but still continued to be esteemed a prophet in his own country.

CHAPTER CXI.

SEQUEL OF THE STATE OF LUTHERANISM AND ANA-

BAPTISM.

The empeior Charles V. and his brother Ferdinand were no longer able to stop the progress of the Protestants. The Diet of Spires, in 1529, in vain drew up moderate articles of pacification. Fourteen towns and several princes of Germany protested against the Edict of Spires ; and it was this protest

Lutheranism and Anabaptism. 79

which occasioned the name of Protestants to be after¬ ward given to all the adversaries of the Romish Church ; Lutherans, Zuinglians, CEcolampadians, Carlostadians, Calvinists, Presbyterians, Puritans, and the High Church and Low Church parties in England, all go under this general denomination. These altogether form an immense general republic, composed of various factions, which are all united against Rome, their common enemy.

In 1530 the Lutherans presented their confession of faith at Augsburg, and this confession, to which one-third of Germany adhered, has since been their constant guide. The princes of this party already began to cabal together against the power of Charles V., as well as against the court of Rome ; but no blood was as yet shed in the empire on account of Luther or his cause. The Anabaptists, still carried away by their blind rage, and whom the exemplary fate of Miinzer had not in the least intimidated, continued to lay Germany waste in the name of God. Fanaticism had never before produced a fury equal to this in the world. The peasants, who all thought themselves prophets, and knew nothing more of Scripture than that it commanded them to massacre without pity all the enemies of the Lord, in 1334 gained the upper hand in Westphalia, which was then the country of stupidity, and made themselves masters of the city of Munster, and expelled its bishops. They at first intended to establish a theoc¬ racy like that of the Jews, and acknowledge no other

80 Ancient and Modern History.

master than God; but one Matthew, who was the chief prophet among them, having been killed, a journeyman tailor, called John of Leyden, from having been born at Leyden, in Holland, assured them that God had appeared to him, and appointed him king; and he made them believe all that he said.

The ceremony of his coronation was conducted with the greatest magnificence. There are still to be seen some pieces of the coins which he struck, with his arms on them, which were two swords placed across, in the same manner as the pope’s keys. Thus, having become king and prophet at the same time, he despatched twelve apostles to declare his reign through all Lower Germany. As to himself, after the example of the king of Israel, he had several wives, and actually married seven¬ teen at once. One of these having dropped some expressions against his authority, he cut off her head in presence of the others, who, either through fear or superstition, danced along with him around the bleeding trunk of their murdered companion.

The king-prophet had one virtue which is fre¬ quently found in robbers and tyrants; this was courage : he defended Munster against its bishop, Waldeck, with intrepid bravery, for the space of a whole year ; and, though reduced to the last extremi¬ ties of famine, rejected all accommodation. At length he was taken fighting, by the treachery of his own people ; but even in captivity he still retained his unshaken pride. The bishop demanding of him

8]

Geneva and Calvin.

how he had the insolence to make himself king, this haughty prisoner demanded of him in his turn by what right a bishop had the insolence to be a tem¬ poral lord. “ I was elected by my chapter,” replied the bishop ; “And I by God Himself,” replied John of Leyden. The bishop, after having carried him about for some time from town to town, and exhib¬ ited him as we do a monster, caused his flesh to be torn off with red-hot pincers. But the punishment inflicted upon the king and his followers did not suppress the enthusiasm of this sect. Their brethren in the Low Countries were very nearly surprising the cit>' 0;f Amsterdam ; but the conspirators, being dis¬ covered, were all put to death. The sect, however, still exists, but entirely different from what it was in its first origin ; the descendants of these bloody fanatics are the most peaceable of men, wholly employed in their manufactures and trade, and of an industrious and charitable disposition. So extraor¬ dinary a change is almost without example ; but as they make no figure in the world, it is hardly thought worth while to inquire whether they are changed or not, nor whether they are wicked or virtuous.

CHAPTER CXII.

GENEVA AND CALVIN.

As the Anabaptists deserved to have the alarm sounded against them from every part of Europe, the

Protestants, on the contrary, gained the greatest Vol. 27 — 6

82 Ancient and Modern History.

commendation in the opinion of the people by the manner in which they established their new religion in many places. The magistrates of Geneva ordered public disputations to be held during the whole month of June, 1535, to which they invited the Catholics and Protestants of all countries. Four senators committed to writing whatever of conse¬ quence was said for and against. After this, the great council of the city examined with the utmost care the result of these disputes. The assemblies of Zurich and Berne had acted much in the same manner, though not so juridically, nor with so much deliberation and ceremony. At length the council condemned the Romish religion ; and this inscrip¬ tion is still to be seen in the town-house, engraved on a brass table : “ In remembrance of the divine

goodness, which hath enabled us to shake off the yoke of Antichrist, to abolish superstition, and to recover liberty.”

Accordingly, the Genevans recovered their real lib¬ erty. The bishops who, after the example of many other German prelates, disputed the right of sov¬ ereignty over Geneva with the duke of Savoy and the people, were obliged to fly, and leave the gov¬ ernment to the citizens. There had for a long time been two parties in the city, the one Protestant and the other Catholic. The Protestants called them¬ selves Egnots, from the word “Eidgenossen,” — “ allied by oath.” The Egnots prevailing, added some of the opposite faction to their communion,

Geneva and Calvin.

83

and expelled the rest. Hence it came that those of the reformed religion in France had the name of Egnots, or Huguenots, given them ; an appellation for which the greater part of the French writers have since invented many idle origins.

This religion of the Genevans was not absolutely the same as that of the Swiss nation ; but the differ¬ ence was very trifling, and their communion has never sustained any injuries from it. The famous Calvin, whom we look upon as the apostle of Geneva, had no part in this change : he retired some time after to this city, but was at first excluded, because his doctrine did not at all agree with the established one ; however, he returned afterward and set him¬ self up for the Protestant pope.

His true name was Chauvin : he was born in Noyon in France in the year 1509. He understood Latin and Greek, and was well versed in the wretched philosophy of his age. He was a better writer than Luther, but not so good a speaker ; they were both laborious and austere, but rough and passionate ; both full of ardor to signalize them¬ selves and gain that ascendency over the minds of others which is so flattering to self-love, and which makes a kind of conqueror of a divine.

Those ignorant Catholics, who only know in gen¬ eral that Luther, Zuinglius, and Calvin were each of them married, and that Luther permitted the land¬ grave of Hesse to have two wives, imagine that these first founders of the reformed religion worked them-

84 Ancient and Modern History.

selves into the good opinion of the people by flat¬ tering insinuations, and that they freed mankind from a heavy yoke, to impose a very light one upon them ; but the contrary is the truth. They were men of the most rigid manners, and all their words were dipped in gall. If they condemned celibacy in the priests, and opened the gates of the convents, it was only to turn all society into a convent. Shows and entertainments were expressly forbidden by their religion ; and for more than two hundred years there was not a single musical instrument allowed in the city of Geneva. They condemned auricular confes¬ sion, but they enjoined a public one ; and in Switzer¬ land, Scotland, and Geneva it was performed the same as penance. There has been no gaining man¬ kind, at least hitherto, by proposing to them only the simple and the easy ; the master who is most rigid is always the most listened to. These reformers deprived men of their free will, and everyone flocked to them. Neither Luther, Calvin, nor any of the others were agreed concerning the eucharist ; one, as I have already observed, saw God in the bread and wine, in the same manner as fire in a heated iron; another, like the pigeon, in which the Holy Ghost is said to reside. At first Calvin had a dispute with such of the Genevans as communicated with leavened bread, as he was for having unleavened bread used. He took refuge in the city of Stras- burg, for he could not return to France, where fires were already lighted up in every part ; and Francis

Geneva and Calvin.

35

I. suffered the Protestants to be burned, while he was making an alliance with their brethren in Ger¬ many. Having married the widow of an Anabaptist at Strasburg, he afterward returned to Geneva, and took the sacrament with leavened bread, as others did; and soon acquired as great reputation in that city as Luther had done in Saxony.

Here he framed the tenets and discipline that are now observed by those whom we call Calvinists in Holland, Switzerland, and England, and which have so long divided the minds of the people in France. He also established synods, consistories, and the office of deacon; regulated the form of prayer and preaching; and even instituted a consistorial juris¬ diction, that has a right of excommunication.

Calvin’s religion is quite agreeable to a republican faith ; and yet he himself was of a tyrannical dis¬ position.

We have an instance of this in the persecution he raised against Castalion, a man of much greater learning than himself, whom he out of jealousy expelled from Geneva ; and in the cruel death which he long afterward caused to be inflicted upon the unfortunate Michael Servetus.

86

Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER CXIII.

CALVIN AND SERVETUS.

Michael Servetus, a learned physician of Villa- nuova, in Aragon, merited the peaceable enjoyment of the reputation which was due to him for having discovered the circulation of the blood long before Harvey ; but he neglected a useful art for a danger¬ ous knowledge. He wrote concerning Christ’s pre¬ figuration in the Word, of the hypostasis or person¬ ality of the Word, of the beatific vision, of the angelic substance, and a book “de manducatione superiori.” He partly adopted the ancient tenets of Eusebius and Arius, which prevailed in the East, and were in the sixteenth century embraced by Lelio Sozzini, and afterward received in Poland, England, and Holland.

He was of so open a disposition, that he wrote from Vienne, in Dauphiny, where he lived for some time, to Calvin concerning the Trinity. They car¬ ried on their dispute by letters for some time; but Calvin from disputation proceeded to invectives, and from these to a theological hatred, which is of all others the most implacable. Calvin had treacher¬ ously procured some sheets of a work which Ser- vetus was privately printing ; these he sent to Lyons, together with the letters he had received from him, an action which is alone sufficient to disgrace him forever with society ; for that which is called the

Calvin and Servetus.

87

spirit of society is infinitely more strict than all the synods in the world. Calvin caused Servetus to be accused by one of his emissaries. What a part for an apostle to act ! Servetus, who was very sensible that in France every innovator was condemned with¬ out mercy to the stake, found means to make his escape, while they were preparing matters for his trial. Unfortunately for him he passed through Geneva on his way. Calvin informed against him, and caused him to be apprehended. But as the Genevans had a law, which should be imitated in all states, that the informer shall surrender himself prisoner, together with the person accused, Calvin caused the information to be given by one of his followers, who served him in the quality of a domestic.

When he saw his adversary in confinement, he loaded him with every kind of insult and vile treat¬ ment, as base minds are wont to do, when they get the upper hand. At length, by continually pressing the judges to employ the credit of those he pointed out to them, and by proclaiming in person, and by his emissaries, that God demanded the execution of Michael Servetus, he had him burned alive, and took a cruel pleasure in being a witness to his sufferings; he, who, if he had set a foot in France, would have been sent to the stake himself, and who had so loudly exclaimed against all persecution.

Our indignation and pity must be still increased when we consider that Servetus, in the works he

88 Ancient and Modern History.

published, plainly acknowledged the eternal god¬ head of Christ; and that Calvin, in order to ruin him, had produced some private letters, written a long time before, by this unfortunate man to some of his friends, wherein he expressed himself some¬ what too freely.

This deplorable catastrophe did not happen till the year 1555, twenty years after the Council of Geneva had made its decree against the Romish religion ; but I give it a place here, in order to fur¬ nish a better insight into the true character of Calvin, who afterward became the apostle of Geneva, and of those of the reformed religion in France. But the most ample amends are now made to the ashes of Servetus. Several learned pastors among the Eng¬ lish Protestants, and even some of the greatest phi¬ losophers, have embraced his opinion, and that of Sozzini: they have even gone farther than either of them : their religion consists in the adoration of one God, through the mediation of Jesus Christ. And here we give only a relation of facts and opin¬ ions, without entering into any controversy, or dis¬ puting against any person, reverencing what we ought to reverence, and confining ourselves wholly to historical fidelity.

The finishing stroke to this picture of Calvin may be found in a letter written with his own hand, which is still preserved in the castle of Bastie-Roland, near Montelimar : it is directed to the marquis de Poet,

Calvin and Servetus. 89

high chamberlain to the king of Navarre, and dated September 30, 1561.

“ Honor, glory, and riches shall be the reward of your pains; but above all do not fail to rid the country of those zealous scoundrels who stir up the people to revolt against us. Such monsters should be exterminated, as I have exterminated Michael Servetus, the Spaniard.”

The faults of mankind are frequently allied to virtues. This harshness of Calvin’s was joined to the greatest disinterestedness ; for at his death the whole of his possessions was not worth more than one hundred and twenty gold crowns. His indefat¬ igable application shortened his days ; but it ren¬ dered his name famous, and procured him great reputation.

There are letters of Luther’s, which breathe as turbulent and uncharitable a spirit as those of Cal¬ vin. The Catholics say they cannot conceive how the Protestants could acknowledge such men as apostles: to which the Protestants reply that they do not invoke as saints the authors of the Reforma¬ tion; that they are neither Lutherans, Zuinglians, nor Calvinists ; that they profess to follow the doc¬ trine of the Primitive Church; that they do not canonize the passions of Luther and Calvin; and that the ferocity of their characters ought no more to make against their tenets in the minds of Prot¬ estants than the manners of Alexander VI. and Leo X., or the barbarities of certain persecutions, should

90 Ancient and Modern History.

prejudice the Romish religion in the minds of Cath¬ olics.

This is a truly prudent reply; and moderation seems at present to have taken the place of ancient fury in both parties. Had the same spirit of blood¬ shed and cruelty always prevailed in religion, Europe would be only a vast burying-place. But the spirit of philosophy has at length blunted the edge of the sword ; yet mankind were obliged to suffer two hun¬ dred years of mad cruelty, to arrive at these days of ease and tranquillity.

These commotions, which, by the events of war, restored so large a portion of the Church possessions into secular hands, did not enrich the theologians who were the promoters of those wars. They met the fate of those who made the charge, but do not partake of the spoils. The pastors of the Protestant churches had inveighed so loudly against the riches of the clergy that they imposed a kind of law of decency upon themselves, which prevented them from accumulating what they had so much con¬ demned ; and almost every crowned head kept them strictly to the letter of this law. The Calvinist and Lutheran pastors have in most places had such pro¬ vision made for them as is necessary for their sup¬ port, without allowing of luxury. The revenues of the monasteries have been almost all placed in the hands of the government, and applied to the use of hospitals. The only rich bishoprics remaining in Germany, whose possessions have not suffered

Calvin and Servetus.

91

diminution, are those of Liibeck and Osnabriick. You will see, in casting your eye over the sequel of these revolutions, the whimsical but pacific agree¬ ment in the Treaty of Westphalia, by which this bishopric of Osnabriick has become alternately Lu¬ theran and Catholic. The Reformation has been more favorable to the clergy in England than it has been to the Lutherans and Calvinists in Germany, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. In England, the bishoprics are all very considerable ; the livings afford a handsome support ; and the country curates there are much better provided for than they are in France. All the advantage reaped by the govern¬ ment and the laity was from the dissolution of the monasteries. There are several entire parishes in London which were formerly only one convent, but are now peopled with several numerous families. In general, every nation where convents have been converted to the use of the public, has, humanly speaking, been a gainer, without any person being injured: in fact, nothing is taken from a society which no longer exists; and there was no injury done but to a few temporary possessors, who left no descendants behind them to complain of what they had been stripped of. It was the injustice of a day, which has been productive of a benefit that will last for ages.

In the meantime, before this confusion could be properly reduced to order, the two parties of Lu¬ therans and Catholics set all Germany in flames.

92 Ancient and Modern History.

The Gospel religion, as it was called, was already — in the year 1555 — established in twenty-four cities and eighteen small provinces of the empire. The Lutherans wanted to humble the power of Charles V., and he on his side pretended to root them out of the empire. Alliances were made, and battles fought on both sides ; but here we must follow the changes wrought in the minds of men, with respect to relig¬ ious affairs, and see in what manner the Church of England was first established, and the schisms which happened in that of France.

CHAPTER CXIV.

KING HENRY VIII. AND THE CHANGE OF RELIGION IN

ENGLAND.

Everyone knows that the separation between Eng¬ land and the see of Rome was caused by an amour of Henry VIII. What neither St. Peter’s pence, the reservations and provisos, the annats, the levying of taxes, the sales of indulgences, nor five years of exactions, all constantly opposed by acts of parlia¬ ment and the murmurings of the people, could bring to pass, was produced at length, or at least was first occasioned by a sudden love fit ; and this mighty monument of the papal power, which had been so long and so furiously shaken by public hatred, was brought to the ground by the first stone which was flung against it.

Henry VIII., a man by nature sensual, violent,

93

Henry VIII., and Religion.

and obstinate in his desires, had, among many other mistresses, one named Anne Boleyn, the daughter of a private gentleman of his kingdom. This young lady, whose free and sprightly carriage seemed to promise very little resistance, had still the prudence not to yield entirely ; by which she so inflamed the king’s passion that he resolved to make her his wife.

He had been married for over eighteen years to Catherine of Spain, daughter of Ferdinand and Isa¬ bella, and aunt of Charles V., who had borne him three children, of which there was one still living; this was the princess Mary, afterward queen of England. How then was he to procure a divorce, or annul his marriage with a person like Queen Catherine, whom he could not reproach with harsh¬ ness, ill conduct, nor even that moroseness which is so frequently found in women of strict virtue? This princess was first married to Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII., who died a few months after their nuptials. Henry VII. procured a dispensation from Pope Julius II., and made a contract of mar¬ riage between her and his second son, this Henry VIII., who, as soon as he came to the crown by his father’s death, was solemnly espoused to her. A considerable time afterward he had a bastard by one of his mistresses, named Blunt. But he then had only conceived a dislike to his marriage, and no scruples of conscience; but as soon as he fell so passionately in love with Anne Boleyn, and found that he could not obtain her without marriage, he

94 Ancient and Modern History.

instantly began to feel a remorse of conscience, and shuddered to think how much he had offended God by having lived eighteen years with Catherine as his wife. This prince, who still acknowledged the authority of the see of Rome, applied to Clement VII. to annul Pope Julius’s bull, and declare his marriage with Catherine of Spain contrary to all laws, divine and human.

Clement VII., the bastard son of Julian of Medici, had lately seen the city of Rome sacked by the army of Charles V., and having but lately made peace with this prince, he was still apprehensive that he would get him deposed, on account of his illegitimacy. He therefore could by no means think of declaring his aunt a concubine, and her children bastards, who had been so long acknowledged legitimate. Nor could he, as pope, own that his predecessor had no title to grant a dispensation. And, on the other hand, it would have been sapping the very foundation of the papal power to acknowledge that there were any laws which the popes might not break through if they thought fit.

Louis XII. had caused his marriage to be dis¬ solved ; but his was a very different case from the present. Louis had no children by his queen, and Pope Alexander VI., who ordered this divorce, was connected in interest with that monarch.

Francis I. strongly supported Henry’s cause at Rome, both as his brother-in-law and ally, and also as the enemy of Charles V., whose power had

95

Henry VIII., and Religion.

already grown formidable. The pope, thus pressed between the emperor and these two kings; and being, as he expressed himself in one of his letters, “ between the hammer and the anvil,” had recourse to negotiations, delays, promises, and denials, hoping that Henry’s passion would not last so long as an Italian negotiation ; but here he was deceived ; and the English monarch, who unfortunately happened to be a theologian, made his divinity subservient to his passion. He and his doctors had recourse to the Levitical law, which forbids anyone “ to uncover the nakedness of his brother’s wife, or to marry his wife’s sister.” The Christian states have long wanted, and still continue to want good positive laws. In their jurisprudence, which is yet barbarous in many respects, and composed of the ancient cus¬ toms of five hundred petty tyrants, they are fre¬ quently obliged to have recourse to the laws of the Romans and Hebrews, like a man who has wandered out of the road, and is inquiring his way. They search in the Jewish code for rules to direct the practice of their tribunals.

But if we are to follow the Jewish matrimonial law at all, we should follow it in everything. We should condemn to death everyone who draws near to his wife at certain seasons which happen to the female sex; in a word, we should obey a number of injunctions, which are not made either for our climates or our manners, and are even contradictory to the new law.

g6 Ancient and Modern History.

This, however, was the least of the many errors committed by those who pretended to judge con¬ cerning Henry’s marriage, by the principles of the Levitical law. They industriously concealed from themselves, that in Deuteronomy, one of those very books in which, according to our weak under¬ standings, God sometimes appears to command con¬ tradictions in order to exercise the obedience of mankind, a man is not only permitted, but even enjoined, to marry his brother’s widow, in case she has no children ; and that the widow had a right to summon her husband’s brother to fulfil this law; and in case of a refusal, to loose his shoe from his foot, and throw it in his face.

It afforded an extraordinary and curious spectacle to behold the king of England, on one side, soliciting the several universities of Europe to favor his pas¬ sion, and the emperor, on the other, pressing them as warmly for their decision in favor of his aunt, and the king of France between both, standing up for the Levitical law against that of Deuteronomy, in order to make the breach irreparable between Henry of England and Charles V. The emperor lavished benefices upon those Italian doctors who wrote for the validity of Catherine’s marriage; and Henry paid those as bountifully who gave their opinions in his favor. Time has at length unveiled these mys¬ teries; and in the accounts of one of the king’s private agents, named Crook, we find the following articles : “ To a Servetian monk, one crown ; to two

Henry VIII., and Religion. 97

other monks, two crowns; to the prior of St. John, fifteen crowns ; to John Marino, the preacher, twenty crowns.” From this we find that the price was different, according to the credit of the suf¬ frage ; and yet this purchaser of theological decis¬ ions, after he turned Protestant, declared, in defence of his proceedings, that he had never bought a single opinion, nor given any sum of money, till after the decree was signed. At length, on July 2, the univer¬ sities of France, and particularly the Sorbonne, came to a resolution that the marriage of Henry VIII. with Catherine of Aragon was unlawful, and that Julius had not power to dispense with the Levit- ical law.

Henry’s agents went so far as to call in to their assistance the opinions of the Jewish rabbins; who acknowledged, that by the Deuteronomical law, a man was commanded to marry his brother’s widow ; but, said they, this law related only to the country of Palestine, and it is the Levitical law which ought to be observed in England. The universities and rabbins of the Austrian territories were of a quite different opinion ; these, however, were not con¬ sulted.

Henry, thus provided with decisions, which he had purchased at a reasonable rate, pressed by his mis¬ tress’ importunities, wearied with the pope’s con¬ tinual subterfuges, encouraged by Francis I., and depending on the support and authority of the clergy and universities of his own kingdom, and absolute Vol. 2-7—7

98 Ancient and Modern History.

master of his parliament, caused his marriage to be annulled by Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, in x533- The queen, after having with becoming boldness and modesty maintained her just rights, and objected to the authority of the court in such a manner as not to furnish any dangerous weapons against herself, retired from the capital, and left her bed and throne to her rival ; and this favorite mistress, who was already advanced two months in her pregnancy when she was declared a wife and a queen, made her public entry into London with a pomp as much superior to the customary magnifi¬ cence on those occasions, as her present exalted station was above her former fortunes.

Pope Clement VII. could not now avoid avenging the affront offered to Charles V . and the preroga¬ tives of the holy see ; and accordingly issued a bull against Henry VIII. The bull lost him the king¬ dom of England; for Henry, almost at the same time, got himself declared supreme head of the Church of England by his clergy, and the parliament confirmed this title and abolished the pope s author¬ ity throughout the kingdom, together with his annats, Peter’s pence, and provisional grants. The nation cheerfully joined in taking a new oath to the king, called the ‘‘Oath of Supremacy;” and thus was the whole credit of the popes, which had lasted for so many centuries, overthrown as it were in an instant, and without contradiction, notwithstanding the desperate* outcries of all the religious orders.

Henry VIII., and Religion. 99

Those who pretended that no great kingdom could break with the pope without manifest danger, now saw that a single blow was sufficient to overthrow this venerable colossus, whose head was of gold, and his feet of clay. In fact the taxes which the court of Rome had so long imposed on the English were founded only on that people’s willingness to be laid under contribution ; but as soon as they resolved to be no longer so, it was found that a power founded only on force is nothing in itself.

The king made his parliament grant him the annats or first-fruits, which used to be collected by the popes. He created six new bishoprics, and ordered a visitation of all the convents in his name. In the accounts of this visitation, which are still to be seen, we find some scandalous excesses care¬ fully exaggerated, some false miracles greatly mul¬ tiplied, and some fictitious relics, which were said to have been made use of in several convents to increase the devotion of the people and bring in offerings. Several wooden figures were burned in one of the market-places in London, in 1535, which it was said the monks made move by means of springs.

But the people could not, without a mixture of horror and concern, behold the ashes of St. Thomas of Canterbury, whom the English nation still revered, committed to the flames, together with these instruments of pious fraud. The king appro¬ priated the rich shrine in which they were contained.

1

ioo Ancient and Modern History.

and which was curiously adorned with jewels, to his own use. If Henry with justice reproached the monks with their extortions, he gave them equal reason by his proceedings to charge him with rapine. All the convents were suppressed in 1536; and such of the religious as, on account of their age, could not enter into the world again, had either places assigned for their retreat, or pensions allowed them. Their revenues were all placed in the king’s hands ; according to a calculation made by Burnet, they amounted to one million six hundred thousand pounds sterling; but this is exaggerating matters. The amount in effects and ready money was very considerable. With these spoils Henry founded and endowed six new bishoprics, and one college, bestowed large rewards on some of his servants, and converted the remainder to his own use.

This very prince, who had written so warmly in defence of the pope’s authority, against Luther, now became an irreconcilable enemy to the see of Rome. But the same zeal, which had instigated him to oppose so vehemently the opinions of that arch¬ heretic and reformer, still induced him to adhere to the doctrine, though he had changed the disci¬ pline of the Romish Church.

He wanted to be the pope’s rival, but without being either Lutheran or Sacramentarian. He still preserved the invocation of saints, but under certain restrictions. He ordered the Holy Scriptures to be read to the people in the vulgar tongue, but would

IOI

Henry VIII., and Religion.

£,0 no further. It was equally a crime to believe in the pope, and to be a Protestant ; and he con¬ demned to the flames those who spoke in favor of the Roman pontiff, and those who declared for the reformed religion of Germany.

The famous Lord Chancellor More and one Bishop Fisher were sentenced by the parliament, agreeably to the rigor of the late laws, to be beheaded, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy, which was, in other words, acknowledging Henry VIII. for pope of England ; for Henry always made use of the sword of the law to cut off those who proved refractory.

Pope Paul III., who succeeded Clement VII., thought to save Fisher’s life by sending him a cardinal’s hat, while matters were preparing for his trial ; but in this he only gave Henry the satisfac¬ tion of bringing a cardinal to the block. The king afterward set a price upon the head of Cardinal Pole, who had taken refuge at Rome, and inhumanly caused the mother of this prelate to be put to death by the hands of the executioner, without the least regard to her great age, or the royal stock from which she was descended. All this he did because they refused to acknowledge him as the English pope.

The king, having understood that there was at that time in London a learned Sacramentarian, called Lambert, resolved to have the glory of dis¬ puting with him before a grand assembly, sum-

102 Ancient and Modern History.

moned for that purpose at Westminster. The end of this disputation was that the king gave his antag¬ onist his choice either to be of his opinion or to be hanged. Lambert nobly made choice of the latter, and the king had the mean cruelty to order him to be executed. The English bishops, who were still Catholics, though they had renounced the jurisdic¬ tion of the pope, were animated with such furious zeal against the heretics that, when they condemned any of them to be burned, they granted forty days’ indulgence to every person who brought wood to build the pile.

All these massacres were carried on by acts of parliament; and this show of justice, which is per¬ haps more detestable than the oppressive violence which defies all laws, was in a great measure the means of preventing civil wars. There were insur- 1 ections in some of the counties, but London, awed by its fears, remained perfectly quiet.

Thus did Henry VIII., by his policy and severity, render himself absolute master of his people. His will became the sole law of the kingdom ; and those nominal laws by which they judged between sub¬ ject and subject, were so imperfect, that at that time a person was sentenced to death upon the deposition of a single witness ; and it was not till the reign of Edwai d \ I. that the English, following the example of other nations, enacted as a law, that no person should be condemned without the deposition of two witnesses.

Henry VIII., and Religion. 103

Anne Boleyn still enjoyed her triumph, under the protection of the king’s authority. It is said that her ruin was secretly plotted by some of the friends of Rome, who hoped, that if they could bring about a separation between her and the king, the daughter of Catherine of Spain would succeed to the crown, and restore the religion which had been abolished in favor of this rival. The king, who had lately become enamored of Jane Seymour, one of the queen’s maids of honor, greedily received the reports brought him against his wife. He was violent in all his passions ; and now, without blushing or hesi¬ tation, accused his consort of adultery, before the house of peers. The parliament, which at that time was only the creature of the king’s will, gave judg¬ ment against the queen; but on such slight evi¬ dence that, if a private person were to part with his wife on no stronger conviction of her guilt, he would pass for a very bad man. At the same time they condemned her brother to lose his head on pretence of having committed incest with her, though without the least proof. Two other persons were executed for having used some complimentary expressions to her, which might be spoken to any woman, and which the most virtuous queen might hear, when, in a gayety of humor, she indulges the persons about her in the freedom of conversation: and a musician was also hanged who had been pre¬ vailed upon to depose in court that he had partaken of her private favors, and who was never confronted

104 Ancient and Modern History.

with her. The letter which the unfortunate queen wrote to her husband before she went to the scaffold is a strong proof of her innocence and resolution : “ Your majesty has ever loaded me with favors and dignities,” says she ; “ from a private woman you raised me to the rank of a marchioness, from a marchioness to be a queen ; and now from a queen, you are this day pleased to make me a saint.” In a word, Anne Boleyn was sent from a throne to a scaffold by the jealousy of a husband who had no longer any affection for her. She was not the only one of twenty crowned heads, who had met with a tragical end in England, but she was the first who had fallen by the hands of the executioner. The tyrant — for I can give him no other name — caused himself to be divorced from his wife before he put her to death, and by that means declared his daughter Elizabeth a bastard, as he had before ille- gitimatized his first daughter, Mary.

The very next day after the queen’s execution, he married Jane Seymour, who died the following year, after having brought him a son.

In 1539 Henry contracted a new marriage with Anne of Cleves, of whom he became enamored by a flattering picture, which the famous Hans Holbein had drawn for her. But when he saw her in person, he found her so different from her picture, that in six months after he resolved on a third divorce, To bring this about, he told his clergy that he had never consented in his heart to marry Anne of

io5

Henry VIII., and Religion.

Cleves. No one could have had the impudence to make use of such a reason, without being very sure that those to whom it was offered would be mean enough to allow its validity. The bounds of justice and shame had been long broken through, and the clergy and parliament made no scruple of granting him a sentence of divorce; after which he married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, who was one of his own subjects. Any other person than Henry would have been weary of continually exposing the real or pretended infamy of his family ; but he, on the contrary, being informed that the queen, before her marriage, had had several gallants, in 1542 ordered her to be beheaded for past faults, which should not have been remembered, and which, at the time of their commission, did not merit so severe a punishment.

After being thus stained with the blood of two wives, and branded with the infamy of three divorces, he caused a law to be passed, equally shameful, cruel, ridiculous, and impossible to be executed ; which was, that any person being privy to the gallantry of the queen, and not making the same known, should incur the penalties of high treason; and that every woman about to be mar¬ ried to a king of England, not being a virgin, is bound to declare the same under pain of punishment.

It was said by way of jest on this act — if there could be any jesting in such a court — that the king ought to marry a widow ; which he accordingly did,

io 6 Ancient and Modern History.

in 1543, in the person of Catherine Parr, his sixth wife, who very nearly experienced the fate of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard; not for any affair of gallantry, but for happening to differ sometimes from the king in matters of religion.

Some princes who have changed the religion of their kingdoms have become cruel and tyrannical from the opposition and rebellion of their subjects: but Henry was cruel by nature, and a tyrant in his government, his religion, and his family. Yet this man died in his bed, in 1547, and Henry ,VI., the most sweet-tempered of all princes, was dethroned, imprisoned, and assassinated.

This king’s last illness furnishes us with a singu¬ lar instance of the power of the English laws, so long as they remain in force, and of the strict observ¬ ance which has in all times been paid to the letter, rather than the spirit of those laws. No person dared to acquaint Henry with his approaching end, because, a few years before, he had made the parlia¬ ment pass a law, declaring it high treason in anyone who should foretell the death of the king. This law, as cruel as it was absurd, could not be founded on the pretence of the troubles arising about the suc¬ cession, since the succession had already been settled in favor of Prince Edward ; it was therefore only the effect of the tyrannical disposition of Henry VIII., his fear of death, and the general opinion which still prevailed concerning the art of knowing futurity.

The Religion of England.

107

CHAPTER CXV.

SEQUEL OF AFFAIRS RELATING TO RELIGION IN

ENGLAND.

During the reign of Edward VI., son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, the English were Prot¬ estants, because the sovereign and his council were such, and because the spirit of Reformation had already begun to take root. The Church of Eng¬ land was at that time partly Lutheran and partly Sacramentarian ; but no one was persecuted on account of belief, except two poor Anabaptist women, whom Archbishop Cranmer, a violent Lu¬ theran, insisted upon having burned, not foreseeing that he himself was one day to undergo the same fate. The young king refused for a long time to give his assent to the condemnation of these poor wretches ; and when at length obliged to sign the warrant for their death, he shed a flood of tears. It was not sufficient to shed tears on such an occa¬ sion ; he should have persisted in refusing to sign. But he was then only fourteen years of age, and could not be supposed to have any steady resolves, either with respect to good or evil.

Those who at that time went under the denomi¬ nation of Anabaptists in England are the ancestors of the pacific Quakers, whose religion has been the object of so much ridicule, while at the same time we cannot forbear having an esteem for their man-

108 Ancient and Modern History.

ners. These Anabaptists differed widely in point of doctrine, and still more in conduct, from the German Anabaptists, that uncivilized and brutal rabble, who, as we have already seen, carried the fury of wild fanaticism as far as it was possible for human nature to do, when left to itself. The English Anabaptists had not yet any settled body of doctrine among them, as indeed no sect raised from among the common people can have, till after a length of time; but it is very extraordinary that, though they made a pro¬ fession of being Christians, without the least pre¬ tence to any kind of philosophy, they were in fact no other than deists ; for they owned Jesus Christ only as a man to whom God had been pleased to impart a greater portion of pure knowledge than to the rest of mankind who lived at the same time. The most learned of them affirmed that the term “ Son of God ” signified no more with the Hebrews than a good or virtuous man, as the son of Belial, Satan, did a wicked man; and that most of the tenets which have been taken from the Scriptures are philosophic subtleties, which have been made use of to cover plain and natural truths. They denied the history of the fall of man, the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and consequently that of the incarnation. They absolutely rejected the baptism of children, and conferred a new one upon adults; several of them even looked upon baptism as only an old Eastern form of ablution adopted by the Jews, and afterward revived by John the Baptist,

The Religion of England. 109

and which was never put in practice by Christ upon any of his apostles. It was in this point that they principally resembled the Quakers, who have come after them ; and this dislike to the baptism of chil¬ dren was the chief thing which procured them the appellation of Anabaptists. They pretended to adhere closely to the letter of the Gospel, and thought that dying for their sect was dying for Christianity; and in this they differed essentially from the deists, or God-worshippers, who estab¬ lished their private opinions more than ever in the midst of so many public sects.

These latter, who were more attached to Plato than to Jesus, and who were philosophers rather than Christians, being tired of the numberless and unhappy disputes about religion, somewhat too rashly rejected both divine revelation, which they found too much perverted by mankind, and human authority, which had been still more abused. They spread themselves throughout all Europe, and have increased in a surprising manner, without having formed themselves into either sect or society, or having ever rebelled against any power. This relig¬ ion is the only one in the world that never had an assembly; very little has been written concerning it; it is peaceable, and has spread through every part without the help of communication. Formed originally of philosophers, who, by following the light of nature only, without instructing each other, have wandered in a uniform manner; from them it

iio Ancient and Modern History.

spread itself among the middle class of people, who lead a life of ease consequent upon a limited fortune, and has since ascended to the great in all countries, but seldom has come down to the common people. England is, of all countries in the world, that wherein this religion, or rather philosophy, has with time taken the deepest root, and spread the most universally. Here it has communicated itself even to the artificers and country people, and the inhabi¬ tants of this island are the only people who have begun to think for themselves ; but the number of these country philosophers is very inconsiderable, and will always continue so ; for hard labor and argumentation agree but ill together, and the com¬ mon people in general neither make a good nor a bad use of their understanding.

A fatal atheism also began to arise in most places in Europe from these theological divisions. It is said that there were a greater number of atheists in Italy at that time than elsewhere. The Italian philosophers were not led into these excesses by the disputes about doctrine, but rather by those irregularities into which almost all the courts of Europe, and that of Rome likewise, had fallen. In reading the Italian writings of those times with attention, we may perceive in several of them, that the authors being too forcibly struck with the mon¬ strous excess of wickedness of which they speak, refused to acknowledge a divine being who could permit such crimes, and thought as Lucretius did.

Ill

The Religion of England.

This pernicious opinion prevailed among the great, both in England and France ; but it was of short duration in Germany and the North, and there is no reason to apprehend that it will make any great progress ; sound philosophy, morality, and the inter¬ ests of society have now in a manner exterminated it ; but at that time it was kept alive by religious wars, when an enthusiastic multitude were led by atheistic chiefs.

Edward VI. died in 1 553> in the midst of these calamitous times, and on his deathbed declared his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who was descended from Henry VII., heiress to his kingdom, in prejudice to his sister Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII. and Catherine of Spain. Jane was accordingly pro¬ claimed in London ; but Mary’s right, assisted by a faction, got / the ascendency after a very slight contest. Mary then confined her rival in the Tower, together with Princess Elizabeth, who afterward had so glorious a reign.

Much more blood was spilled on the scaffold than in the field upon this occasion. Jane Grey, her father, father-in-law, and husband were all con¬ demned to lose their heads. This was the second queen who had been publicly executed in England. She was only seventeen years of age, and had been compelled to accept the crown : everything pleaded in her favor, and Mary should have dreaded a too frequent example of passing from the throne to the scaffold ; but no consideration could stop her. This

I 12

Ancient and Modern History.

princess was as cruel as Henry VIII., and as cool and deliberate in her barbarities as her father was rash and fiery. In a word, she was a tyrant of another species.

Wholly devoted to the communion of the Church of Rome, and still smarting with the sense of the indignity put upon her mother, she began by dint of art and bribery to get together a parliament of Catholics. The lords, who most of them knew no other religion than that of their sovereign, were easily won ; and the same thing now happened in regard to religion that we have already seen happen in political matters, during the wars between the factions of the white and the red roses. The par¬ liament then alternately passed sentences against the houses of York and Lancaster. In the reign of Henry VIII. they persecuted the Protestants ; while Edward VI. was on the throne they protected and encouraged them, and at Mary’s command they con¬ demned them to the stake. It has been frequently asked why this dreadful punishment by fire is inflicted by Christians on those who happen to think differently from the established church, while the most atrocious crimes meet with a milder death? Bishop Burnet gives us this reason : that as it was the general belief that all heretics were condemned to be everlastingly burning in hell, though their bodies did not go thither before the resurrection, they thought to imitate divine justice by delivering their bodies to the flames in this world.

The Religion of England. 113

Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, who had assisted Henry VIII. in his first divorce, was con¬ demned to this horrible death, not so much for hav¬ ing been the instrument of that act, as for being a Protestant. This prelate was weak enough to abjure his opinion : and Mary had the pleasure of sending him to the stake, after having brought infamy upon his character ; but he resumed his courage in the midst of the flames, declared that he died a Protestant, and did that in reality which we find only written, and that perhaps fictitiously, of Mucius Scaevola. He thrust into the flames the hand which had signed his abjuration, and held it there till it was quite consumed; then sank down into the fire and expired ; an action as intrepid, and infinitely more praiseworthy than that which is attributed to Mucius. The Englishman punished himself for that which he thought a weakness in him, whereas the Roman did it only because he had failed in an intended assassination.

It is said that about eight hundred persons were burned during Mary’s reign. One woman, who was big with child, was delivered in the flames, and some of the spectators, being moved with compassion, snatched the infant out of the fire, which the Catho¬ lic judge ordered to be cast back again. In reading these abominable deeds we can hardly think that we were born in a society of men, but rather among those beings which are represented to us in the midst Vol. 27 — 8

1 14 Ancient and Modern History.

of a gulf of torments, waiting in eager expectation to hurry mankind into them.

Among all those whom Mary’s cruelty condemned to be burned alive, not one was accused of rebellion against the lawful sovereign; they all suffered for religion: and while Jews were allowed to exercise their religion without interruption, and even indulged with privileges, Christians consigned Chris¬ tians to the most shocking death, only for differing from them in certain articles !

Mary died in peace, in i559> but despised by her husband, Philip II., and her own subjects, who still upbraid her with the loss of Calais, and her memory will forever be held in detestation by all who are not of a persecuting soul.

To Catholic Mary succeeded the Protestant queen, Elizabeth. The parliament now became Protestant again, together with the whole nation, which has ever since continued so. Religion was now fixed on a solid foundation ; and the liturgy, which had been first begun in the reign of Edward VI., was estab¬ lished as it now subsists. The religion of the Church of England consists, in general, of the Romish form of church government, with some fewer ceremonies than are used by the Catholics, and some more than are practised by the Lutherans. It allows confession without enjoining it, and holds that God is in the eucharist, though without transubstantiation. It was necessary in politics that the crown should retain

The Religion of England. 115

the supremacy : accordingly, a woman became the head of the Church.

This woman had more understanding and a better mind than either her father, Henry VIII., or her sister Mary. She avoided persecution as industri¬ ously as they had encouraged it. Having perceived at her first coming to the crown that the preachers of both parties were the trumpets of discord in their pulpits, she issued an ordinance forbidding all preaching for the space of six months, without an extra licence signed by herself, in order to prepare the way for a general harmony. This new precau¬ tion kept those within bounds who thought they had a right, and might possibly have the power to stir up the people. No one suffered persecution, or was even called to account on the score of belief ; but those who acted against law, or raised commotions in the state, were severely dealt with, according to law. The great principle which was so long mis¬ taken by mankind was now firmly established in all minds in England, that it is the province of God alone to judge the hearts of those who offend him, and of men to suppress those who rebel against a government established by men. You will, in the course of this history, find what you should think of Elizabeth, and especially what opinion you should form concerning the English nation.

Ii 6 Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER CXVI.

RELIGION IN SCOTLAND.

Tite troubles which befell religion in Scotland were reflected upon it from England. It was about 1559 that certain Calvinists first ingratiated them¬ selves into the favor of the people, whom it is always necessary to gain in the first place. They are open and artless, and of their own accord take the bridle that is held out to them, till some powerful person comes, who seizes it and guides them as is most for his own advantage.

The Catholic bishops were ready to condemn the few heretics who first appeared in the kingdom, to the flames ; for this inhuman practice was as common in those days in Europe as it now is to hang a thief.

There happened at that time in Scotland what must necessarily happen in every country where there are the least remains of liberty. The sufferings of an old priest, whom the archbishop of St. Andrews had condemned to be burned, made a number of proselytes; and these, making use of their liberty, boldly circulated their new tenets in 1559, and opposed the archbishop in his cruelties. Several of the Scotch nobility acted, during the minority of Mary Stuart, as those of France did during the minority of Charles IX. By their ambition they added fresh fuel to the flames which had been lit by religion, and much blood was shed, as in other places

Religion in Scotland. 1 1 7

under like circumstances. It would have been much better for the Scots, who were then the poorest and most indolent people in Europe, to have applied themselves by labor and industry to till their barren and ungrateful soil, or at least to have procured that subsistence they stood in need of by fishing, than to have drenched their miserable country in blood for foreign opinions, and the interest of a few ambitious men among them; but they added this new mis¬ fortune to that of their natural indigence.

The queen-regent, mother of Mary Stuart, thought to stifle the reformed religion in its infancy, by send¬ ing for French troops ; but by this very step she con¬ firmed the change she proposed to prevent. The Parliament of Scotland, fired with indignation to see their country filled with foreign troops, obliged the regent to send them home, suppressed the Romish religion, and established the Genevan confession of faith throughout the kingdom.

Mary Stuart, who was the widow of the French kmg, Francis II., was a princess of weak talents, and seemed born only for love and gallantry ; being obliged by Catherine de Medici, who feared her beauty, to quit France and return to Scotland, she found only a wretched kingdom, rent in pieces by fanaticism. You will see in what manner she added to the miseries of her country by her own follies.

Calvinism has at length gained the entire ascend¬ ency in Scotland, notwithstanding all the efforts of the Romish bishops then, and the bishops of the

1 1 8 Ancient and Modern History.

Church of England since. It is now almost entirely suppressed in France; at least it is no longer tol¬ erated there. Thus, since the sixteenth century, there has been one continued chain of revolutions in Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Den¬ mark, and France.

CHAPTER CXVII.

RELIGION IN FRANCE DURING THE REIGN OF FRANCIS

1. AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

The French were, ever since the time of Charles VII., looked upon at Rome as schismatics, on account of the pragmatic sanction made at Bourges, conform¬ able to the Council of Basel, which had so strenu¬ ously opposed the papal power. The chief object of this pragmatic sanction was the custom of elec¬ tions among the clergy, a custom which in better times had tended to the encouragement of virtue and sound doctrine, but had also proved the cause of numberless disputes. It was very pleasing to the people on two accounts: to rigid minds it had the appearance of the remains of the primitive church, and the universities found in it a recompense for their labors. The popes, however, notwithstanding that this pragmatic sanction had suppressed the annats and other exactions of the see of Rome, still continued to receive them. We are informed by Fromentau that, in the seventeen years’ reign of Louis XII., the popes had raised in the diocese of

Religion in France. 119

Paris alone the exorbitant sum of three million three hundred thousand livres of the current coin of those times.

When Francis I., in 1515, engaged in his Italian expeditions, which were in the beginning as glorious as those of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., and in the end proved still more unfortunate, Pope Leo X., who at first opposed him, stood afterward in need of his assistance, and became necessary to him.

Chancellor Duprat, who was afterward made car¬ dinal, in conjunction with Pope Leo’s ministers, drew up that famous concordat, by which, as it was said, the king and his holiness gave each other what neither of them had a right to. The king obtained the nomination of vacant benefices, and, by a private article, the first year’s revenue was given to the pope, in consideration of his relinquishing his right of mandates, reservations, reversions, and forestall- ments, rights which the see of Rome had for a long time challenged. The pope, immediately after sign¬ ing the concordat, published a bull, in which he served the annats to his own use. On this occa¬ sion the University of Paris, which by this bull was deprived of one of its rights, assumed a privilege, which even an English parliament would not venture to pretend to, and published an ordinance prohibiting the printing of the king’s concordat, or paying any obedience to it. And yet the universities were not ill-used by this agreement between the king and the pope, since the third part of the benefices in the

120 Ancient and Modern History.

kingdom were left to their disposal, with a right of suing for them during four months of the year, Jan¬ uary, April, July, and October, which were called the graduates’ months.

The clergy, especially those of the colleges, who were deprived of the right of nominating their bish¬ ops, murmured at it; but they were soon pacified by the hope of obtaining benefices from the court. The parliament, which had no favors to expect from the court, maintained with unshaken firmness the ancient customs and liberties of the Gallican Church, of which it was the defender, and respectfully op¬ posed several cabinet orders, and, when at length compelled to register the concordat, entered a gen¬ eral protest that it was done only in obedience to the king’s repeated commands.

But while the parliaments were thus remonstrat¬ ing, and the universities complaining against this concordat, they seemed to have forgotten an essen¬ tial service which Francis I. had done the nation by granting the annats to the pope. They had before his time been paid at an exorbitant rate, as in Eng¬ land, and he lessened them. At present they do not amount to over four hundred thousand francs, one year with another, and these are gained again in trade ; but at length it became the cry of the whole nation to pay no annats at all to Rome.

The first years succeeding the concordat proved very troublesome times in several dioceses ; when the king named one bishop, the canons named

I 2 1

Religion in France.

another, and the parliament, in virtue of the writs of error, always decided in favor of the clergy. These disputes would have occasioned civil wars in the time of the feudal government. At length Fran¬ cis took from the parliament the cognizance of affairs relating to bishoprics and abbeys, and transferred it to the great council of the kingdom. In time everything became quiet, and the people were as much accustomed to the concordat, as if it had always subsisted ; and the complaints of the parlia¬ ment ceased entirely, when in 1558 the king obtained of Pope Paul III. an indulto in behalf of the chan¬ cellors and members of the parliament, empowering them to do that in a less degree which the king does in a greater, namely, to confer benefices during their lives; and the masters of requests had the same privileges.

In all this affair, which occasioned so much uneasi¬ ness to Francis I., it was absolutely necessary for him to make himself obeyed, if he was desirous that Leo X. should fulfil his political engagements with him, and assist him in recovering the duchy of Milan.

It may easily be perceived that the intimate con¬ nection which subsisted between them at that time would not permit the king to let a religion be formed in his kingdom, which was repugnant to the interests of the papal see. The council was of opinion that every innovation in religion brought after it innova¬ tions in the state. Politicians sometimes deceive

122 Ancient and Modern History.

themselves by judging from an example which strikes them. The council was right, if it had in view the troubles occasioned in Germany, which it helped to foment itself; and perhaps might on the other hand be wrong, if it considered the ease with which the kings of Sweden and Denmark had estab¬ lished the Lutheran religion in their dominions. It might have looked farther back, and seen more striking instances. The true religion had been intro¬ duced almost everywhere without any civil wars ; in the Roman Empire by an edict of Constantine, in France by the will of King Clovis, in England by the example of a petty king of Kent, named Ethelbert, and in Poland and Hungary similarly. It was not much more than a century since the first of the Jagellonian race, who reigned in Poland, had embraced Christianity, and made all Lithuania and Samogitia do the same, without the ancient Gepidse having once murmured. And though the Saxons had been baptized in torrents of blood by Charle¬ magne, it was only because he wanted to subject, and not instruct them. If they had cast an eye on the whole continent of Asia, they would have seen a number of Mahometan states peopled with both Christians and idolaters, who lived in harmony together; a number of different religions estab¬ lished in India, China, and other places, without the force of arms ; and if they had recurred to the first ages, they would have still met with the same exam¬ ples. It is not that a new religion is dangerous or

Religion in France. 123

bloody in itself, but that the ambition of the great makes use of such religion to attack the established authority. Thus for instance, the Lutheran princes of Germany took up arms against the emperor, who was aiming at their destruction ; but Francis I. and Henry II. had no princes nor nobles in their domin¬ ions, whom they had reason to fear.

The court, which became divided under the suc¬ ceeding unhappy minorities, was perfectly united in its obedience to Francis I. Accordingly, this prince only suffered the heretics to be persecuted, without being the author of their persecutions him¬ self. The bishops and the parliament lighted the fires, and he did not extinguish them.

He was indifferent about religion himself; he made alliances with the Protestants of Germany, and even with the Mahometans, to oppose Charles V., and when his allies, the Lutheran princes of Germany, accused him of having put their brethren in France to death, who had been guilty of no dis¬ turbances in that kingdom, he threw the whole blame upon the common judges.

We have seen what horrible cruelties were exer¬ cised by the judges in England, under Henry VIII. and Queen Mary. The French, who are esteemed a more humane people, far surpassed them in the barbarities they committed under the name of relig¬ ion and justice.

It is necessary to know, that in the twelfm cen¬ tury one Peter Waldo, a rich merchant of Lyons,

124 Ancient and Modern History.

whose devotion and errors are said to have given rise to the sect of the Vaudois, or Waldenses, hav¬ ing retired with some few poor people, whom he maintained by his charity, into the uncultivated and desert valleys which lie between Provence and Dauphiny, he officiated as father and pontiff to them ; and instructed them in the tenets of his sect, which in several points resembled that of the Albi- genses, of Wycliffe, John Huss, Luther, and Zuing- lius. These men, who lived a long time unknown to the rest of the world, employed themselves in tilling the barren lands they inhabited, and, by incredible labor, made them fit for corn and pasture ; which plainly shows how much we deserve to be accused of negligence, if there remain any unculti¬ vated lands in France. They purchased some inheritances in Cens and the parts adjacent, and by their industry gained a comfortable support for themselves, and enriched their lords, who never found the least reason to complain of them. In the space of two hundred and fifty years, their num¬ bers increased to nearly eighteen thousand souls. They peopled thirty villages, exclusive of hamlets, and all this by the work of their own hands. There were no priests among them, no disputes about wor¬ ship, no lawsuits, they decided all their differences among themselves. Those who went into the neigh¬ boring cities knew that there were such things as a a mass, or bishops. They worshipped God in their own jargon, and their assiduous labor rendered their

I25

Religion in France.

lives innocent. They lived in this happy and tran¬ quil state for more than two centuries, which is to be attributed to their neighbors having been wearied out by the war against the Albigenses. When the human mind has been for a long succession of time hurried away to the last excess of rage and fury, it softens at length into forbearance and indiffer¬ ence ; this may be observed in every individual, and in whole nations. These Vaudois were in the enjoy¬ ment of this peaceful calm when the reformers of Germany and Geneva learned that they had brethren in these parts ; and immediately sent ministers among them, for so they called the curates of the Protestant churches: and now the Vaudois came to be too well known. By the new edict against here¬ tics they were condemned to the flames ; and the Parliament of Provence, in 1540, denounced this punishment against nineteen of the principal inhab¬ itants of the village of Merindol, at the same time ordering their woods to be destroyed and their houses razed to the ground. The Vaudois, struck with consternation, sent a deputation to Cardi¬ nal Sadolet, bishop of Carpentras, who was then at his bishopric. This illustrious sage, who was a true philosopher, as being a humane man, received them with kindness and interceded in their behalf ; upon which Langeai, the commandant in Piedmont, put a stop to the execution, and Francis I. granted them his pardon, on condition that they would abjure their errors; but they could not be brought

126 Ancient and Modern History.

to renounce a religion they had imbibed from their earliest infancy. Their obstinacy exasperated the Parliament of Provence, which was composed of men of a fiery zeal; and Jean de Maynier d’Oppede, at that time its first president, who was more violent than the rest, continued the persecution.

The Vaudois at length revolted ; this exasperated d’Oppede to such a degree that he represented their fault in the blackest light to the king, and procured his permission to put the sentence in execution, after it had been suspended for over five years. For this purpose it was necessary to have troops, which were accordingly sent for by d’Oppede and Guerin, the advocate-general. It was very clear that these poor people, whom the famous orator, Maimbourg, calls a rebellious mob, though they were somewhat too obstinate in adhering to their opinion, were not in the least disposed to revolt, since they did not offer to defend themselves, but fled on all sides, crying out for mercy ; while the old men, women, and children, who could not fly so fast as the rest, were butchered without mercy by the soldiers.

D’Oppede and Guerin flew from village to village, killing all they met, burning their houses and gran¬ aries, and destroying all the standing corn and trees, and pursued the flying inhabitants by the light of the flames. There remained about sixty men and thirty women in the walled town of Cabrieres, who yielded upon promise of having their lives spared; but as soon as they surrendered themselves, they were all

127

Religion in France.

put to the sword ; some women who had taken refuge in a neighboring church, were by d’Oppede’s orders dragged forth, and shut up in a barn, which was set on fire. Twenty-two villages were burned to the ground ; and after the flames were extin¬ guished, the country, which before wore the face of plenty, and was so well inhabited, appeared a perfect desert, in which nothing was to be seen but dead bodies. The few who escaped took refuge about Piedmont. Francis I. was struck with horror on hearing of these cruelties. The sentence which he had permitted to be executed, mentioned the death only of nineteen heretics, and d’Oppede and Guerin had caused thousands to be massacred. The king, on his deathbed, recommended his son to see justice done on the authors of this barbarity, the like of which had never been committed by any civil mag¬ istrates.

Accordingly Henry II. gave his consent for the lords who had been ruined by the destruction of these villages, and the butchery of their people, to bring their complaints before the Parliament of Paris. When the trial came on, d’Oppede had suffi¬ cient interest to get himself cleared, by throwing the whole blame upon the advocate-general, Guerin, whose single life was the only atonement made for the blood of so many hundreds.

These executions, however, did not stop the prog¬ ress of Calvinism; one party employed fire and fagot, and the other diverted themselves with singing

128 Ancient and Modern History.

Marot’s version of the Psalms to ridiculous tunes, agreeable to the genius of the French nation, which is at all times light, and sometimes very cruel. Mar¬ garet, queen of Navarre, and sister of Francis I., and all her court were Calvinists, as was one-half of the king’s court. What had first begun among the common people had now communicated itself to the great, as is almost always the case. They preached in private, and they disputed publicly ; and these disputes, about which no one at present either in court or city gives himself any concern, because they are old, exasperated all minds at that time, because they were new. Even in the Parliament of Paris itself, there were some members that were well-wishers to what was called the reformed relig¬ ion. This assembly was always opposing the pre¬ tensions of the Church of Rome, which this new heresy likewise aimed at overthrowing; but the austere and republican spirit of some of the coun¬ sellors led them to favor a sect, which, by the sever¬ ity of its tenets, condemned the debaucheries of the court. Henry II., being displeased with the conduct of several of the members of this memorable body, came one day upon them unexpectedly in the great hall where they were sitting, at the very time that they were deliberating upon methods for moderating the persecution against the Huguenots, and ordered five counsellors to be put under arrest. One of these, named Anne du Bourg, who had spoken with the most freedom, signed his confession of faith in the

129

Religion in France.

Bastille, which was found to agree in many articles with that of the Calvinists and Lutherans. There was at that time an inquisitor in France, though the office of the Inquisition itself, which has been always held in horror by the French, was not estab¬ lished. This inquisitor, whose name was Mouchi, together with the bishop of Paris and the commissa¬ ries of the parliament, tried and condemned du Bourg, notwithstanding the old established law by which a member of parliament could only be tried by the courts of parliament assembled ; a law which has always subsisted, been always claimed, and almost always proved useless; for nothing is more common in the history of France than to find mem¬ bers of the parliament tried by other courts. Anne du Bourg then was executed in the reign of Francis II. The cardinal of Lorraine, who governed the state with a high hand, was resolved upon his death ; and, in 1559, this priest and magistrate was hanged, and his body afterward burnt in the Place de la Greve. He was of a disposition rather too inflexible, but was an upright judge, and a man of approved virtue.

Martyrs make proselytes. The sufferings of such a man gained more converts to the reformed religion than all the writings of Calvin. A sixth part of the kingdom of France were Calvinists under Francis II., as one-third of Germany at least were Lutherans under Emperor Charles V.

There was then only one choice left, which was

to follow the example of Charles V., who concluded Vol. 27 —

130 Ancient and Modern History.

his many wars by allowing his subjects liberty of conscience, or that of Queen Elizabeth, who, while she protected the established religion, left everyone to worship God agreeably to his own principles, pro¬ vided due obedience was paid to the laws of the kingdom.

This is the practice at present in almost all those countries which were formerly laid waste by relig¬ ious wars ; a long and fatal experience having shown it to be the most salutary method of governing.

But this method cannot be adopted unless the laws are firmly established, and the rage of faction has subsided. France was continually a prey to the most bloody factions, from the time of Francis II. till the glorious reign of Henry the Great. In these disastrous times the laws were little known, and the fanatic spirit which survived the furies of war, brought this monarch to an untimely end in the midst of profound peace, by the hand of a madman and a fool, who had made his escape from a cloister.

Having thus acquired a competent idea of the state of religion in Europe during the sixteenth century, it now remains to say something concerning the religious orders which opposed the new opinions, and of the Inquisition, which labored to exterminate all the Protestants.

The Religious Orders.

l3l

CHAPTER CXVIII.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

T he monastic life, which has done so much good and so much harm in the world, which has been one of the main props of the papal power, and which gave birth to the person who suppressed that very power in half of Europe, merits our particular attention.

It has been believed by a number of Protestants and others, that the several bodies of church militia, together with their different habits, ways of living, occupations, and rules, were all invented by the popes, as so many armies devoted to the service of the holy see, in all the states of Christendom. It is certain that the popes have often made use of them, but they did not invent them.

In the earliest ages of antiquity, there were among the Eastern people certain men, who withdrew them¬ selves from the world to live together in retirement. The Persians, Indians, and Egyptians, especially, had several communities of Cenobites, or monks independent of those who w'ere dedicated to the serv¬ ice of the altar, but among the Greeks and Romans there were none. Their colleges of priests were particularly set apart for the service of their temples, and a monastic life was wholly unknown to these people. The Jews had their Essenians and Thera- peuts. The Christians have imitated them.

132 Ancient and Modern History.

St. Basil,1 in the beginning of the fourth century, instituted his order in a barbarous province, on the borders of the Black Sea; and his rules were fol¬ lowed by all the Eastern monks. He invented the three vows, to which all the recluses submitted. St. Benedict,2 or St, Bennet, established his order in

1 St. Basil the Great was born at Caesarea in Cappadocia, in the year 326. He was educated under the famous Liban- ius at Antioch and Constantinople, and finished his studies at Athens, where he contracted friendship with St. Gregory of Nazianzen, and Julian the Apostate. He afterward visited the monasteries in Syria, Egypt, and Libya, and became so enamored of a monastic life that he retired to a solitary place in the province of Pontus in Cappadocia. There being joined by his brothers and several friends, he composed the rules of an order, and was the first institutor of a monastic life in that country. In the sequel he was elected bishop of Caesarea, and persecuted by the emperor Valens, because he would not communicate with Eudoxus, and embrace the doctrine of the Arians. He had many dis¬ putes about Arianism and the nature of the hypostasis, composed a variety of works, and was, of all the Greek fathers, the most pure, sublime, and elegant writer.

2 St. Benedict was born about the latter end of the fifth century, in the duchy of Spoleto in Italy, and studied at Rome. At the age of seventeen he retired to the desert of Sublaco, at the distance of forty miles from that city, and lived three years in a frightful cavern. He was afterward elected abbot of a neighboring monastery, but being dis¬ gusted with the manners of the monks, he once more retired to solitude, where he was in a little time joined by such a number of disciples that he built twelve monasteries. Understanding there was a temple of Apollo on Monte Cassino, he went thither, converted the inhabitants, demol¬ ished the idol, built two chapels on the mountain, and laid the foundation of the famous monastery of Monte Cassino.

The Religious Orders. 133

the sixth century, and was the patriarch of the Wes¬ tern monks.

It was for a long time a consolation to mankind to find asylums open for the reception of those who were desirous of flying from the oppressive govern¬ ment of the Goths and Vandals. Almost everyone who was not a lord of a castle was then a slave ; the tranquillity of a cloister afforded a happy retreat from tyranny and war. By the feudal laws of the West indeed a slave could not be admitted a monk without the consent of his lord, but the convents had a method of eluding this law. The small remains of learning left among the barbarians were preserved in these convents. The Benedictine monks tran¬ scribed several books, and by degrees many useful inventions arose from the cloisters. Moreover, these religious communities employed themselves in culti¬ vating the land, and singing the praises of the Deity ; they lived a life of sobriety, they were hospitable to strangers, and by their example, in some measure helped to soften the ferocity of those barbarous times ; but complaint was soon made that riches had corrupted what virtue had instituted ; a reformation then became necessary. Every age produced men in all countries, who, animated by the example of St. Benedict, were desirous of becoming founders of new congregations.

There he composed his rule, and founded the order of Bene¬ dictines, who in a little time spread themselves all over Europe.

134 Ancient and Modern History.

The spirit of ambition is almost always accom¬ panied by enthusiasm, and imperceptibly mingles itself with the most rigid devotion. He who entered into the ancient order of St. Benedict became a sub¬ ject; but he who founded a new institution raised to himself an empire. Thence arose the multitude of clerks, canons-regular, and religious of both sexes. Everyone who attempted to found a new order was well received by the popes, because they all became immediately subject to the holy see, by throwing off as much as possible all subjection to their bishops. Most of these orders have generals residing at Rome, as in the centre of Christendom, who from this capi¬ tal despatch the orders they receive from the pontiff to all corners of the world.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century, almost all the states of Christendom were overrun by men who were aliens in their own country and subjects of the pope. Another great abuse was that these immense families increased at the expense of the human species. It is a certain truth, that before convents were suppressed in one-half of Europe, they contained more than five hundred thousand persons. 1 he country places were depopulated, the settlements in the new world were destitute of inhabitants, and the scourge of war daily destroyed a number of valu¬ able lives. As it is the business of every wise ruler to encourage the increase of his subjects, it is doubt¬ less acting contrary to that noble principle, to coun¬ tenance such a multitude of people of both sexes,

The Religious Orders. 135

who are lost to a state, and who bind themselves by oath to do all in their power for the destruction of the human species. It were to be wished that some retreat was appointed for old age ; but this necessary institution is almost the only one which has not been attended to. Our cloisters are filled with those who are hardly arrived at the age of maturity, and who are allowed to part with their liberty forever, at a time when, in other nations, they are not permitted to have the disposal of their own fortunes.

It cannot be denied that the convents have pro¬ duced many instances of shining virtue. There are few monasteries which do not contain some noble minds, who do honor to human nature. Too many writers have taken a malicious pleasure in enumerat¬ ing the dissolute manners and vices which have sometimes sullied the purity of these asylums of devotion. It is certain that the secular state abounds with many more instances of vice, and that the great¬ est crimes have not been committed in monasteries alone ; but they are more remarkable there on account of their evident contradiction to the estab¬ lished rules. No state can have been always free from impurities; therefore we should' here consider only the general good of society, and in this light we cannot but lament that so many noble talents have been buried, and so many virtues lost in retirement, which might have been useful to the world. The small number of convents at the beginning did great service. A few in proportion to each state would

136 Ancient and Modern History.

have been truly respectable ; but by being excessively multiplied, they fell into contempt, insomuch, that the priests, who were at first equal with the bishops, are now in comparison to them the same as the com¬ mon people are to princes.

In this great multitude of religious orders the Ben¬ edictines always held the first rank. Wholly taken up with their power and riches, they took no part in the scholastic disputes of the sixteenth century, and looked upon the rest of the monks as the old nobility do upon the new. The monks of Cluny, Citeaux, Clairvaux, and several others, were branches of the original stock of St. Benedict, and in the time of Luther were known only by their great wealth. The rich abbes of Germany lived quietly in the respect¬ ive states, without intermeddling in controversy; and the Benedictines of Paris had not then employed their leisure hours in those learned inquiries, by which they have since gained such a great reputa¬ tion.

The Carmelites, who were transplanted into Europe from the Holy Land, in the fifth century, desired no more than to have it acknowledged that Elias was their founder.

The Carthusian order, which was instituted at Grenoble, toward the end of the eleventh century, and which was the only one of the ancient orders which did not stand in need of reformation, was a very small body, and though too rich indeed for men who had divorced themselves from the world.

The Religious Orders. 137

still continued, notwithstanding their wealth, in the strict observance of fastings, silence, prayer, and solitude. They led a life of tranquillity, amidst the general tumults which distracted the rest of the world, of which they hardly heard the rumor; and knew nothing of the mighty sovereigns of the earth but by name when they prayed for them. Happy would it have been if such pure and steady virtues could have been of any service to the world !

The Premonstrant of Norbertines, founded by St. Norbert,1 in the year 1120, made very little noise in the world, by which they were so much the more valuable.

The Franciscans, or Cordeliers, were the most numerous and stirring of any of the orders. Francis d’Assisi,2 who first founded this order in the year

1 This saint was bom in the duchy of Cleves, in the year 1082, son of the Count de Gennep, and related to the em¬ peror Henry V., who appointed him his almoner, or chap¬ lain, and offered him the archbishopric of Cambray, which he refused. Tired of a court life, he resigned his benefices, sold his patrimony, and distributed his money to the poor; then he went teaching and preaching from place to place until St. Bernard gave him a solitary valley, called Pre- montre, where he founded the order of canons regular. He was afterward forced to accept the archbishopric of Magdeburg, and thither translated his canons, whose aus¬ tere life astonished the canons of that see, and had well nigh excited a rebellion against their founder.

2 He was a native of Assisi in the ecclesiastical state, and bred up to business ; but he renounced all property, made profession of evangelical poverty, retired to the woods, and subjected himself to such hideous mortifications that his

138 Ancient and Modern History.

1210, was esteemed by them as a man superior to all the rest of human kind. They compared him to Christ himself, and pretended that he per¬ formed many more miracles. He performed no inconsiderable one indeed in having founded this great order, which increased to such a degree, that, at a general chapter, which he held at Assisi, in the year 1219, he saw five thousand deputies from the convents of his institution. And at this time, not¬ withstanding the prodigious number of converts which have been taken from them by the Protestants, they have still seven thousand houses for monks under different denominations, and more than nine hundred convents for women. In some of their late chapters, they reckoned about one hundred and fif¬ teen thousand men, and twenty-nine thousand women ; an intolerable nuisance in countries where there is an evident decrease of the human species.

These men were violent in all their pursuits. They were preachers, divines, missionaries, mendicants, and spies. They traversed the globe from one end to the other, and were everywhere at open enmity with the Dominicans. Their chief theological dispute with these latter is concerning the birth of Christ’s

countrymen looked upon him as a lunatic ; his father brought him back to his house and confined him ; but find¬ ing him averse to any temporal employment, he carried him before the bishop, and there Francis stripped himself naked. He founded his order in the year 1206, and by the whole tenor of his conduct appears to have been a miserable fanatic.

The Religious Orders. 139

mother. The Dominicans affirm that she was subject to the power of the devil, like the rest of mankind ; and the Cordeliers insist that she was wholly exempt from original sin. The Dominicans rest their opin¬ ion on that of St. Thomas j1 and the Franciscans hold their tenets to be the same as those of John Duns,2 a Scotchman, improperly called Scotus, and known to his contemporaries by the title of “ The Subtle Doctor.”

The political disputes between these two orders arose from the great credit and influence acquired by the Dominicans.

The latter of these orders, which was instituted some little time after that of the Franciscans, was inferior to these in numbers, but was much more powerful, on account of the office of master of the pope’s palace at Rome, which, ever since the time

1 This was the famous St. Thomas d’ Aquinas, descended from the counts d’Acquins. He was styled “the Angel of the School,” “ the Angelical Doctor,” and “ the Eagle of Theology.” His treatises on syllogism, sophism, and dem¬ onstration, contain an abridgment of the whole dialectic art of Aristotle, and have been deemed a complete body of logics.

2 John Duns, alias Duns Scotus, born at the town of Duns in Scotland. He professed the order of St. Francis, and flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century. For his profound knowledge and the perspicuity with which he explained the greatest difficulties in philosophy and the¬ ology, he was denominated “ Doctor Subtilis,” and piqued himself on opposing the opinions of St. Thomas. Hence arose the two sects of Scotists and Thomists.

I

140 Ancient and Modern History.

of St. Dominic,1 their founder, has been appropri¬ ated to this order, and the office of the Inquisition, of which one of their fraternity is always president ; and for a long time their generals had the sole nomi¬ nation of all the inquisitors in Christendom. The popes, who have this nomination at present, always continue the meeting of this office in the convent of Minerva, which belongs to the Dominicans ; and this order still appoints monks inquisitors to thirty tribunals in Italy, without reckoning those of Portu¬ gal and Spain.

As to the Augustines, they were originally a soci¬ ety of recluses, to whom Pope Alexander IV., in 1254, gave a body of rules. Though the pope’s sacristan was always chosen from their order, and they had the sole right of preaching and selling indulgences, they were neither so numerous as the Franciscans, nor so powerful as the Dominicans; and are very little known at present in the secular world, otherwise than by having had Luther for one of their order.

I purposely pass over a great number of different communities, as this general plan will not allow me

1 Dominique de Guzman was born a gentleman in Spain, with all the seeds of bigot zeal and fanaticism, which pro¬ duced the most shocking fruit of cruel persecution. He accompanied Simon de Montfort in his expedition against the Albigenses, among whom this Spanish fanatic exercised the most inhuman barbarities. Being appointed inquisitor in Languedoc, he there laid the foundation of his order, which Pope Honorius approved in 1216.

The Religious Orders. 141

•

to make a review of every regiment in this monastical army. But the order of Jesuits, which was founded in Luther's time, demands particular attention. The Christian world has exhausted itself in the praise and blame of this order, which has insinuated itself everywhere, and has everywhere had enemies. A great many people think that it owed its foundation to a stretch of politics ; and that of St. Ignatius de¬ signed by this institution to subject the consciences of all crowned heads to his order, to give it the mastery over the minds of the people, and form it into a kind of universal monarchy.

Ignatius de Loyola, however, was very far from having any such design ; and indeed was never in a condition to form any such pretensions. He was a private gentleman of Biscay, a man of no learning, but with a romantic turn of mind, fond of books of chivalry, and very enthusiastic. He served as a sol¬ dier in the troops of Spain, at the time that the French, who vainly attempted to recover Navarre from the hands of its usurpers, were besieging the castle of Pampeluna in 1521. Ignatius, who was then about thirty years of age, was one of those who defended that castle, and was wounded in the assault. A book of the lives of the saints, which had been given him to read when he was convalescing, and a vision which he fancied he saw, determined him to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. From that time he devoted himself to the mortification of his appetites and passions; and it is reported that he

142 Ancient and Modern History.

•

passed seven days, and as many nights, without tast¬ ing meat or drink ; a thing which is hardly credible, but shows a weak imagination and a very robust constitution. Ignorant as he was, he went about preaching through all the villages. Everyone knows the rest of his adventures, that he watched his arms all night, caused himself to be dubbed the Virgin Mary’s knight, offered combat to a Moor who had spoken disrespectfully of this lady whom he served, and left it to his horse to decide the affair, which took a different road from the Moor's steed. After this he resolved to go and preach the Gospel among the Turks, and got as far as Venice on his way, when reflecting that he could not speak Latin, a tongue which, by the way, was of very little service among the Turks, he returned at the age of thirty-three, and entered school at Salamanca.

Being imprisoned by the Inquisition for having taken the direction of consciences and making pil¬ grimages, on recovering his liberty, he went to finish his studies at Paris, where he fell into company with some of his own nation, who were, like himself, poor and destitute of any settled habitation. They joined company, and repaired to Rome in 1537, where they presented themselves to Pope Paul III. in the char¬ acter of pilgrims, who were desirous of making a journey to Jerusalem, in order to form a private community. Ignatius and his companions were men of some merit, wholly disinterested, self-denying, and full of zeal. We must acknowledge that Ignatius

H3

The Religious Orders.

himself was fired with the ambition of becoming the head of an order. This species of vanity, in which the ambition of commanding had a great share, became strongly rooted in a heart which had made a sacrifice of all its other passions, and operated the more powerfully as it was connected with some virtues. If Ignatius had not had this passion, he would have followed the example of his companions, and entered into the order of the Theatins, which had been lately founded by Cardinal Cajetan. But the good cardinal in vain solicited him to become a member of his community; the desire of being a founder himself prevented him from entering into any other order.

A journey to Jerusalem being at that time attended with great danger, Ignatius found himself obliged to remain in Europe. Having learned a little gram¬ mar, he applied himself to teaching it to children. His disciples seconded his design with great success : but this very success proved the source of many troubles ; the Jesuits met with formidable rivals in the universities, where they were received ; and the towns where they taught, taking part with the universities, became the theatres of numberless divisions.

But if the desire of instructing, which charity dictated to this founder, was productive of many fatal events, on the other hand his humility and that of his followers, who would never accept of any church dignities, was the means of raising his order

144 Ancient and Modern History.

to its present pitch of greatness. Most crowned heads chose Jesuits for their confessors, that they might not be obliged to purchase absolution with a bishopric ; and the place of confessor had frequently been found of more importance than a bishop’s see. It is a private office whose power increases in propor¬ tion to the prince’s weakness.

At length Ignatius and his followers, who found great difficulty in procuring a bull from the pope for the establishment of their order, were advised to add to the three common vows, a particular one of obedience to the pope ; and this fourth it was which afterward gave rise to those missionaries who carry the religion and glory of the supreme pontiff to the extremities of the world. Thus did a person, the least versed in politics of any of his time, give birth to the most political of all monastic orders. In mat¬ ters of religion, enthusiasm always lays the first stone ; but art completes the building.

We have since seen the Jesuits holding the reins of government in most courts in Europe, raising a great name by their learning, and the education of youth ; going to China to remodel the sciences, con¬ verting Japan for a time to Christianity, and giving laws to the people of Paraguay. There are at pres¬ ent more than eighteen thousand of this order in the world, all subject to one perpetual and absolute general, and preserved in union with one another, solely by that obedience which they have vowed to 3 single person. Their government ha? become the

The Religious Orders. 145

model for a universal monarchy. Some of their convents are very poor, and others very rich. Don John de Palafox, bishop of Mexico, wrote thus to Pope Innocent X. about one hundred years after the first institution of this order: “I have found almost all the riches of these provinces in the hands of the Jesuits. They have two colleges, which are in possession of three hundred thousand sheep, six large sugar-works, of which some are worth nearly a million crowns, and several very rich silver mines, so considerable that they might suffice a prince supe¬ rior to all the sovereigns of the earth.” These com¬ plaints may seem exaggerated, but were certainly founded in truth.

Th:s order met with great obstacles before it could establish itself in France, and nothing less could be expected. It had taken its rise and had grown under the house of Austria, by whom it was still protected. The Jesuits, in the time of the League, were pen¬ sioners of Philip II. The other religious orders, who all took part in these troubles, except the Benedic¬ tines and Carthusians, fed the fuel of discord only in France: but the Jesuits blew the coals from their seminaries in Rome, Madrid, and Brussels, even to the heart of Paris, which a succession of hapipier times extinguished.

Nothing can appear more contradictory than the public odium with which these people have been loaded, and the confidence they have acquired : that spirit which has banished them from almost every VoL 27 — xo

146 Ancient and Modern History.

country, and restored them again with glory; the prodigious number of their enemies, and the esteem of the people. But we have met with instances of the same contradiction in the mendicant orders. In all numerous societies, devoted to religion and the sciences, there are always some turbulent and fiery spirits, which make themselves enemies, and others, who by their learning acquire reputation ; some, who by their insinuating behavior, raise par¬ ties and factions, and some, who by a sound policy take advantage of the genius and labor of the others.

The Fathers of the Oratory in France are a new order entirely different from any of the rest. Their community is the only one which makes no vows, and where repentance never enters. Their retreat is always voluntary. The rich live at their own expense, the poor are supported by the order. They enjoy a freedom becoming to men, and with them virtue is never disgraced by superstition or mean¬ ness.

There is a powerful emulation between these sev¬ eral orders, which has frequently broken out in a furious jealousy. The hatred between the white and the black friars — the Dominicans and Fran¬ ciscans — continued with the utmost fury for several ages. These two orders were naturally enemies to each other, as has been elsewhere observed. Each order seemed to rally under a different standard : what is called the spirit of the community inspired all societies.

The Religious Orders. 14-7

Those orders which were devoted to the relief of the poor and the service of the sick have always been of the least note, though not the least esteemed. W hat can be more noble in the world than the sacri¬ fice made by the tender sex, of their youth and beauty on these occasions ; who, though frequently of the most distinguished birth, stoop to do the meanest offices in the hospitals, for a number of miserable wretches, whose appearance is mortifying to human pride, and shocking to delicacy ? Those who have separated themselves from the communion of the Church of Rome have but faintly imitated this noble and generous charity.

This useful community is, however, very small. There is another community of a more heroic kind ; for so I think we may term the order of Trinitarians, for the redemption of captives, which was instituted in the year 1120, by a gentleman named John de Matha. These monks have devoted themselves for five centuries past to the releasing of Christian slaves from the fetters of the Moors, and pay for their ransoms out of the revenues of their order, and the alms they receive, which they gather themselves, and carry in person into Africa.

No one can complain of an institution of this kind ; but it is a general complaint that the monastic life has deprived society of too many of its members. The nuns in particular are dead to their country, and the tombs they inhabit during their lives are in general very poor. A young woman who gains her

148 Ancient and Modern History.

livelihood by working with her needle earns much more than is laid out for the maintenance of a nun. In short, their fate might claim our pity, if the num¬ ber of convents of men who are immensely rich could raise our envy. But it is evident that their great numbers would depopulate the state ; for this reason the Jews never had any female Essenians or Therapeuts. There is no one retreat set apart for virginity in all Asia; and the Chinese and Japanese alone have female bonzes : but who knows whether these are absolutely useless in their generation? There were never more than six vestals in ancient Rome, and these were allowed to quit their retreat and marry after a stated time.

Policy seems to require that a necessary number only should be set apart for the service of the altar, and the other purposes relating to it. In England, Scotland, and Ireland, there are not above twenty thousand clergy. In Holland, which contains two millions of inhabitants, there are not a thousand; and again these persons thus consecrated to the service of the Church, being almost all of them married, help to furnish their country with subjects, whom they bring up in a virtuous and prudent manner.

In the year 1700 the number of clergy in France, both secular and regular, was reckoned at two hun¬ dred and fifty thousand, which far exceeds the ordi¬ nary number of soldiers. The clergy in the eccle¬ siastical state made a body of thirty-two thousand,

149

The Religious Orders.

and the monks and young women confined in con¬ vents, amounted to nearly eight thousand. Of all the Catholic states, this is the one in which the number of secular clergy exceeds the most those of the monks ; but it is a certain means of being always weak, to maintain forty thousand churchmen, and only ten thousand soldiers.

There are more convents in France than in all Italy together. The number of both sexes shut up in convents in this kingdom, at the beginning of the present century amounted to more than ninety thou¬ sand. In Spain there are not above fifty thousand, if we rely upon the account taken by Gonzalez Davila, in the year 1623 : but then this country is not more than half so populous as France ; and after the expulsion of the Jews and Moors, and the transplanting of so many Spanish families into America, it must be admitted that the number of convents in Spain form a kind of mortality, which insensibly destroys the nation.

In Portugal there are somewhat more than ten thousand religious of both sexes. This country is nearly of the same extent as the ecclesiastical state, and yet the number of those who inhabit the cloisters there are in a greater proportion.

It has been proposed in almost every kingdom to restore to the state a part of the members which it is deprived of by monasteries. But those who have the management of the administration are sel¬ dom affected by a distant prospect of utility, however

150 Ancient and Modern History.

obvious, especially when this future advantage is bal¬ anced by a present difficulty.

The religious orders are likewise all of them against such an alteration. Every superior who finds himself at the head of a little state is desirous of increasing the number of his subjects; and fre¬ quently a monk, though heartily tired of the con¬ finement of a cloister, has still the imaginary good of his order at heart, in preference to the real good of his country.

CHAPTER CXIX.

THE INQUISITION.

As a militia of five hundred thousand monks fighting for the Word, under the standard of Rome, could not prevent one-half of Europe from throwing off the yoke of that see, neither was the Inquisition of any other service than to make the pope lose the seven United Provinces, and to sentence a number of unhappy wretches to the flames to no purpose.

We may remember that this tribunal, which pre-- tends to a right of judging the thoughts of men, was first erected by Pope Innocent III., in the year 1200, during the war against the Albigenses ; and that without paying the least regard to the bishops, who are the only proper judges in trials of doctrine, it was intrusted to the management of a few Domin¬ icans and Cordeliers.

These first inquisitors had the power of summon-

HOITI8IUPHI 3 M T 3 PI 03 3 a

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■•vc. i]i t* hen ti- •

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before the inquisition

The Inquisition. 151

ing all heretics before them, or pronouncing the sen¬ tence of excommunication, of granting indulgences to every prince who should use his endeavors to destroy such as they condemned, of receiving peni¬ tents again into the Church, and levying such taxes on them as they pleased, and of requiring from them a certain sum of money, as a pledge for the sincerity of their repentance.

By the caprice of events, which throws so many contradictions into human politics, it happened that the most violent enemy the popes ever had proved the most strenuous protector of this tribunal.

Emperor Frederick II., whom the pope had some¬ times accused of being a Mahometan, and at others of atheism, thought to clear himself of this reproach, by taking the Inquisition under his protection ; and in 1244 published four edicts at Pavia, by which he commanded the secular judges to deliver up to the flames all such as should be condemned by the office of Inquisition, as obstinate heretics ; and imprison for life those whom it should declare penitent.

But this stroke of policy in Frederick did not secure him from persecution ; and the popes have since made use of the very arms he furnished them with to attack the rights of the empire.

In 1225 Pope Alexander III. established the Inqui¬ sition in France, during the reign of St. Louis. The father guardian of the Franciscan order at Paris, and the provincial of the Dominicans were appointed

152 Ancient and Modern History.

chief inquisitors. Agreeable to Alexander’s bull, they were to consult the bishops before they passed sentence; but they showed no regard to this injunc¬ tion. So extraordinary a juridical power given to men who had made a vow of retiring from the world, filled both clergy and laity with indignation. A Franciscan inquisitor assisted at the trial of the Knights Templars; but the general dislike which people of all ranks showed to these monks, soon reduced their power to an empty name.

In Italy the popes had more credit, because though their authority was despised in Rome, and they themselves were for a long time banished from there, they were still at the head of the Guelph faction against that of the Ghibellines ; and they made use of the Inquisition against the partisans of the empire: for in 1302, Pope John XXII. caused Mat¬ thew Visconti, lord of Milan, to be arraigned before the monks of the Inquisition, for no other crime than his attachment to Emperor Louis of Bavaria. The fidelity of a vassal to his lord paramount was declared heresy. The houses of Este and Malatesta were proceeded against in the same manner, and for the same cause; and if punishment did not fol¬ low sentence, it was only because the pope found it easier to get inquisitors than to raise armies.

As this tribunal grew more powerful, the bishops were more strenuous in reclaiming those rights which properly belonged to them, and which this office had deprived them of. The popes sided with

The Inquisition. *53

the inquisitors, who exercised their authority in all its latitude in almost all the states of Italy, while the bishops were no other than their assistants.

Toward the end of the thirteenth century — in 1289 — the Inquisition was received in Venice; but as in all other places it is dependent only on the pope, in Venice it was subject to tbe senate, who had the wise precaution to take from the inquisitors the fines and confiscations. It thought to moderate their zeal by taking from them the temptation of enriching themselves by their sentences ; but as the ambition of exercising the power of office is fre¬ quently as prevalent a passion in the human mind as avarice itself, the inquisitors went such lengths that the senate, later on — in the sixteenth cen¬ tury — ordered, that for the future, the Inquisition should never proceed to trial without three senators being present. By this and several other political regulations, the authority of this tribunal was reduced to nothing in Venice, purely by being eluded.

A kingdom where it should seem that the Inqui¬ sition would have established itself with most ease and with the greatest power, was the very one where it could never gain admittance ; I mean the kingdom of Naples. The sovereigns of this state, and those of Sicily, looked upon themselves as entitled, by virtue of the concessions made to them by tbe popes, to execute ecclesiastical jurisdiction within their own territories; and there being always a dispute

154 Ancient and Modern History.

between the king and the pope about the nomination of the inquisitors, there were none appointed; and for this one time the people were benefited by the quarrels of their masters. There were, however, fewer heretics in Naples and Sicily than elsewhere. This peaceful state of the Church in those kingdoms may serve to show that the Inquisition was not so much the bulwark of the true faith, as a scourge invented for the torment of mankind.

It was admitted into Sicily, after having been received in Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year 1478; but in this island, still more than in Castile, it was a prerogative appertaining to the crown, rather than a Romish tribunal ; for in Sicily the king is pope.

It had been a long time settled in Aragon ; but there, as well as in France, its power was very weak and circumscribed; and it remained as it were in oblivion without functions and without order.

It was not till after the conquest of Granada that this tribunal displayed its power in Spain, and exer¬ cised its functions with an authority and rigor that had never been practised by any of the other courts of justice. The Spaniards at that time must cer¬ tainly have had something more austere and merci¬ less in their disposition than any other people ; wit¬ ness the studied cruelties they practised upon the inhabitants of the new world they had discovered, and the excessive barbarities they committed in the exercise of a jurisdiction which the Italians, who

*55

The Inquisition.

were the first projectors, carried on with much greater lenity. The popes erected this tribunal with a political view, and the Spanish inquisitors added cruelty to it.

Mahomet II., after having subdued Constantinople and Greece, suffered the vanquished to follow their religion in peace ; his successors did the same : and the Arabians, while they were masters of Spain, had never compelled the Christian inhabitants to embrace the Mahometan religion. But after the taking of Granada, Cardinal Ximenes was resolved that all the Moors should become Christians, either through a motive of zeal, or from the ambition of adding a new set of subjects to the primacy. This attempt was a direct violation of the treaty by which the Moors had surrendered themselves, and therefore it required time to bring it to bear. But Ximenes wanted to convert the Moors in as short a time as his sovereign had taken Granada. Accordingly they were preached to, they were persecuted, they revolted, were sub¬ dued, and at length, in 1499, obliged to receive bap¬ tism ; and Ximenes gave to fifty thousand of them the mark of a religion, in which not one of them believed.

The Jews, who were included in the treaty made with the king of Granada, experienced no greater indulgence than the Moors had done. There were great numbers of them then in Spain, who were there as they are everywhere, the brokers in trade; a profession which is so far from producing a spirit

156 Ancient and Modern History.

of sedition, that it can subsist only among those of a pacific disposition. There are more than twenty- eight thousand Jews, now licenced by the pope in Italy, and nearly two hundred and eight synagogues in the kingdom of Poland. The city of Amsterdam contains only about fifteen thousand ; though every¬ one must allow that it can carry on its trade without them. In short, the Jews were not more dangerous in Spain ; and the taxes which might have been levied on them would have furnished the govern¬ ment with certain resources. It is therefore very difficult to reconcile the persecution raised against them with the rules of sound policy.

The Inquisition proceeded against them as well as the Moors. We have already remarked that a great number of Jewish and Mahometan families chose rather to quit Spain than be subject to the severity of this tribunal, by which Ferdinand and Isabella lost many valuable subjects ; since those of their sect who preferred flight to rebellion were certainly the least to be feared. Those who remained behind pre¬ tended to become Christians ; but the chief inquisi¬ tor, Torquemada, represented these feigned prose¬ lytes to Queen Isabella as persons whose estates ought to be confiscated, and their lives taken away.

This Torqueipada, who was a Dominican friar, and had been lately made a cardinal, first gave the Spanish Inquisition that juridical form, so repugnant to all the laws of humanity, which it has ever since retained. In the space of fourteen years he tried

The Inquisition. 157

nearly eighty thousand persons, and burned six thousand, with all the parade and ceremony of the most august festival. What we read concerning the nations who sacrificed human victims to their deity, is nothing in comparison with these execu¬ tions, which were accompanied with all the cere¬ monies of religion. The Spaniards were not at first sufficiently struck with horror at these cruelties, because only their ancient enemies, the Jews, were the sufferers; but in a short time they themselves proved the victims: for when Lutheranism began to make a noise, the few natives who were suspected of favoring it were sacrificed without mercy.

The very form of these trials affords an infallible means of destroying whomsoever the judges pleased. The accused is never confronted with his accuser; and the greatest encouragement is given to everyone who will inform against another. A public criminal branded by the law, a child, or a prostitute is esteemed a serious accuser. The son may be a wit¬ ness against his father, and a wife against her hus¬ band. In short, the accused person is obliged to give testimony against himself, and to guess and acknowl¬ edge the crime imputed to him, of which he is fre¬ quently ignorant.

So unheard-of a proceeding made all Spain trem¬ ble. A general distrust took possession of all minds ; there was no longer any friendship nor society. One brother stood in fear of another, and the father sus¬ pected his son. Taciturnity became the character of

158 Ancient and Modern History.

a people who were born with all the vivacity which a warm and fruitful climate could inspire. Those of the common people who had most cunning, strove to be bailiffs to the Inquisition, under the title of familiars, choosing rather to be its attendants than stand in danger of its censures.

We may likewise attribute, as an effect of this dreadful tribunal, that profound ignorance of sound philosophy in which most of the Spaniards are still immersed, while the people of Germany, England, France, and even Italy itself, have brought to light so many important truths, and enlarged the sphere of our knowledge. Human nature is never so debased as when ignorance is armed with power.

But these effects of the Inquisition, melancholy as they are, are but trifling in comparison with those public sacrifices, known by the name of auto-da-fe, or acts of faith, and the horrors by which they are preceded.

A priest clad in his surplice, and a monk who has made a vow of meekness and humility, attend in vast subterraneous dungeons to see their fellow-crea¬ tures put to the most excruciating tortures. After this a stage is erected in a public place, whither all the condemned are led to the stake, attended by a train of monks and friars; who sing psalms, perform a mass, and murder their fellow-creatures. An inhab¬ itant of Asia, who should chance to arrive at Madrid the day of such an execution, would not be able to determine whether it was a rejoicing, a religious cer-

The Inquisition. 159

emony, a sacrifice, or a butchery; and it is indeed all these together. The kings, whose presence alone is in other nations sufficient to confer pardon on a criminal, assist bareheaded at this spectacle, on a seat somewhat lower than that of the inquisitors, and behold their subjects expiring in the flames. Monte¬ zuma has been reproached with sacrificing the cap¬ tives taken in war to his gods ; but what would you have said had he been spectator of an auto-da-fe?

These executions are now less frequent than here¬ tofore. But as reason cannot without great diffi¬ culty penetrate where fanaticism is established, it has not yet been able to suppress them entirely.

The Inquisition was not yet introduced into Portu¬ gal till 1557, when that country was no longer under Spanish dominion. At first it met with all the resist¬ ance which its very name was sufficient to produce ; but at length it was established with the same power as at Madrid. The chief inquisitor is nominated by the king, and confirmed by the pope. The private tribunals of this office, which has the title of Holy given it, are subject in Spain and Portugal to the tribunal of the capital. The Inquisition observed the same severity in both these states, and the same assiduity in signalizing their power.

In Spain, after the death of Charles V., it had the boldness to arraign and try Constantine Pontius, that emperor’s confessor, who ended his days in the dungeon. After his death he was burned in effigy at an auto-da-fe .

160 Ancient and Modern History.

John de Braganza having delivered his country, Portugal, from the Spanish yoke, was desirous like¬ wise of freeing it from the Inquisition: but all he could do was to deprive the inquisitors of their right to confiscations. In return, they declared him excom¬ municated after his death ; and his queen was obliged to solicit absolution for his dead body, which was equally ridiculous and absurd: for this absolution was in fact declaring him to have been culpable.

When the Spaniards settled in America, they car¬ ried the Inquisition over with them ; and the Portu¬ guese introduced it into the East Indies, immediately after it was established by authority in Lisbon.

Everyone has heard of the Inquisition at Goa. As in other countries it is a restraint on the rights of nature, in Goa it is directly contrary to policy ; for the Portuguese are settled in the Indies only for the sake of trade. Now commerce and the Inquisition are two things which appear incompatible. Had it been admitted in London or Amsterdam, those cities would neither have been so well peopled nor so opu¬ lent. Accordingly, when Philip II. attempted to introduce it into the provinces of the Low Countries, the stop which was put to trade proved one of the principal causes of the revolution. France and Ger¬ many have fortunately been preserved from this scourge. These countries have experienced all the horrors of war, on account of religion ; at length these wars are at an end, but the Inquisition once established is of eternal duration.

The Inquisition. 161

It is not to be wondered at, that a tribunal which is so universally detested, should be accused of excesses of cruelty and insolence, which it never committed. We read in a number of books, that Constantine Pontius, confessor of Charles V., was accused before the holy office of having dictated the emperor’s will, in which there did not appear to be a sufficient number of pious legacies ; and that the confessor and the will were both of them condemned to be burned; and at length, that Philip II. could with great difficulty prevent the sentence from being executed upon the will. This whole story is mani¬ festly false. Constantine Pontius had not been Charles’s confessor for a long time before he was imprisoned, and that monarch’s will was held in great esteem by Philip, who was a prince of too great abilities and power to suffer such a disgrace to be thrown upon the beginning of his reign and his father’s character.

We also find in several authors who have written against the Inquisition, that Philip III., king of Spain, being present at an auto-da-fe, and seeing several people burned for Jews, Mahometans, and heretics, or suspected of being such, cried out: “ These people are very unhappy, to suffer death because they could not change their opinions.” It is very probable that a king might think in this manner, and that some such words might have escaped him. It is only very cruel that he would not save those whose fate he lamented. But it is further

1 62 Ancient and Modern History.

added that the chief inquisitors, remembering these words, imputed them as a crime to the king, and had the abominable impudence to demand repara¬ tion for them, which the king was mean enough to agree to; and that this reparation made to the honor of the holy office consisted in having blood drawn from some part of his body, which the chief inquisitor ordered to be burned by the hands of the executioner. Philip III., though a prince of narrow understanding, was not so egregiously weak as to submit to such treatment; nor is a story of this nature to be believed concerning any prince : it is found only in books of no authority, in a picture of the popes, and certain false memoirs printed in Holland, under a number of fictitious names. Be¬ sides, it shows great want of capacity, to asperse the Inquisition without reason, and to have recourse to falsehoods to render it detestable.

This tribunal, which was instituted for the extir¬ pation of heretics, is precisely the thing which has the most separated the Protestants from the Church of Rome. They cannot look upon it without horror, and would rather suffer death than consent to receive it ; and the sulphurous shirts of the holy office were always with them the standard of general opposition.

Having thus gone through everything relative to religion, I shall reserve for succeeding times the history of those misfortunes, of which it has been the cause either in reality or pretence in France and

Discoveries of the Portuguese. 163

Germany, and now proceed to those amazing dis¬ coveries, which at this time brought glory and wealth to Portugal and Spain, which took in the whole universe, and made Philip II. the most pow¬ erful monarch of Europe.

CHAPTER CXX.

THE DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE.

Hitherto we have seen only men whose ambition disputed the possession, or disturbed the peace, of the known world. An ambition, which seemed at first more advantageous to mankind, but which in the end proved equally fatal, now excited human indus¬ try to go in search of new lands and new seas.

It is well known that the pointing of the needle to the north, which remained so long hidden from the most learned people, was discovered in the times of ignorance, toward the end of the thirteenth century. Soon afterward Flavio Goia, of Amalfi, in the king¬ dom of Naples, invented the compass, and distin¬ guished the touched point by a fleur-de-lis; which was one of the armorial bearings of the kings of Naples, as being descended from the house of France.

This discovery remained a long time without being put in use; and the verses mentioned by Fauchet, to prove that the compass was made use of in 1300, were probably written in the fourteenth century.

The Canarv Islands had already been discovered,

164 Ancient and Modern History.

without the help of the compass, about the end of the fourteenth century. These islands, wh’ch in Ptolemy’s and Pliny’s time were called the Fortunate Islands — Insulae Fortunatce — were well known to the Romans, after they became masters of Africa Tingitana, from which they were not far distant. But the fall of the Roman Empire having destroyed all communication between the western nations, who now became strangers to one another, these islands were lost to us. They were discovered again in the year 1300 by some Biscayans; Louis de la Cerda, prince of Spain, son of that Louis who lost the crown, finding that he could not be king of Spain, demanded of Pope Clement V., in 1306, the title of king of these islands ; and, as the popes were always fond of bestowing real or imaginary kingdoms, Clement crowned him king of these islands, in Avignon ; la Cerda, however, chose to continue in France, which was then the place of his asylum, rather than to make a voyage to the Fortunate Islands.

The first time we find the use of the compass men¬ tioned with any certainty, is by the English under Edward III. The little knowledge that remained among mankind was confined to the cloisters. An Oxonian monk, named Linna, who was a very skilful astronomer for the times he lived in, penetrated as far as Iceland, and drew some charts of the north seas, which were afterward made use of in the reign of Henry VI.

Discoveries of the Portuguese. 165

But the more noble and useful discoveries were not made till the beginning- of the fifteenth century. These were begun by Prince Henry of Portugal, son of John I., who thereby rendered his name more glorious than that of all his contemporaries. This prince was a philosopher, and he employed his phi¬ losophy in doing good to the world.

Five degrees on this side of our tropic lies a prom¬ ontory, which stretches out into the Atlantic Ocean, and which, till that time, had been the ne plus ultra of navigation : it was called Cape Non; a word which signified that it was not to be passed.

Prince Henry found some pilots bold enough to double this cape, and to sail as far as Cape Boyador, which is only two degrees distant from the tropic; but this new promontory, which stretched for the length of one hundred and twenty miles into the ocean, and was surrounded on all sides by rocks and banks of sand, and in the midst of a very boisterous sea, damped the courage of the pilots. The prince, whom nothing discouraged, sent others in their stead ; but these could not make their passage, and returned by the main ocean. On their way they dis¬ covered the island of Madeira, in 1419, which was certainly known to the Carthaginians, and which some exaggerated accounts had made to pass for an immense island ; nay, by a still greater exaggera¬ tion, some moderns have taken it for the continent of America itself. Its discoverers gave it the name of Madeira, from its being covered with wood;

1 66 Ancient and Modern History.

“ madeira ” in the Portuguese language signifying wood, hence came our French word madrier.

Prince Henry ordered some vines of Greece to be planted there, and sugar canes, which he procured from Sicily and Cyprus, whither they had been brought by the Arabians from the Indies ; and from these sugar canes came those which were afterward transplanted into the American islands, which at present furnish all Europe with that commodity.

Henry preserved Madeira ; but he was obliged to give up the Canary Islands, of which he had taken possession, to the Spaniards, who prosecuted the claim of Louis de la Cerda and Pope Clement’s bull.

Cape Boyador had struck such dread into the minds of all the pilots, that for over thirteen years not one of them dared to attempt to pass it. At length, in 1446, Prince Henry, by his resolution, inspired a few of them with fresh courage. They passed the tropic, and sailed nearly four hundred leagues beyond it, as far as Cape Verde. The dis¬ covery of Cape Verde and the Azores, in 1460, is entirely owing to his care and diligence. If it is true, as is asserted, that they saw upon one of the rocks of the Azores, a statue, representing a man on horse¬ back, holding the horse’s mane with his left hand, and pointing with his right to the west, we may reasonably suppose that this monument belonged to the ancient Carthaginians ; and the inscription found on it, in unintelligible characters, seems a corrobo¬ rating proof.

Discoveries of the Portuguese. 167

Almost all that part of the coast of Africa which had been discovered was under the dominion of the emperors of Morocco, who had extended their sov¬ ereignty and religion from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Senegal river, across the deserts; but the country was very thinly peopled, and the inhabitants were hardly a degree removed from brutes. When the adventurers had published their discoveries beyond Senegal, they were surprised to find the men to the southward of that river jet black, while those to the northward were ash-colored. These discov¬ eries were hitherto more curious than useful. It was necessary to people these islands, and the trade on the western coast of Africa produced no great advantages. At length some gold was discovered on the coast of Guinea, but in very small quantities ; hence came the name of guineas, which the English afterward gave to the coin which they struck from the gold they found in this country.

The Portuguese, to whom belongs the sole honor of enlarging the limits of the earth for the rest of mankind, passed the equator, and discovered the kingdom of Congo : they now beheld a new heaven, and new stars.

The Europeans now saw, for the first time, the southern pole, and the four stars which are the near¬ est to it. It is something very extraordinary that the famous Dante should have spoken of these very stars above one hundred years before this discovery. “ I turned myself to the right,” says he, in the first

1 68 Ancient and Modern History.

canto of his “ Purgatory,” “ and looked toward the other pole; there I beheld four stars, which have never been known to men, but in the first infancy of the world.” This prediction seems much more pos¬ itive than that which we find in the “Medea” of Seneca, the tragedian, who says : “A day shall come, when the ocean shall no longer separate nations, when a new Tiphys shall discover a new world, and Thule cease to be the boundary of the earth.”

This vague idea of Seneca is no other than a prob¬ able hope, founded on the progress which might be made in navigation ; and the pretended prophecy of Dante has in fact no relation to the discoveries of the Spaniards and Portuguese. The clearer this proph¬ ecy appears, the less reason is there to believe it true. It is by mere chance that the south pole and its four stars happen to be spoken of by Dante. He expresses himself only in a figurative sense, and his whole poem is a continued allegory; the pole with him means the terrestial paradise ; the four stars, known only to the first race of men, are the four car¬ dinal virtues, which disappeared with the times of primitive innocence. If we were, in like manner, to search into most of the predictions with which so many books abound, we should find that nothing was ever meant to be foretold by them ; and that the knowledge of futurity belongs alone to God, and those whom he had been pleased to inspire.

It was not known before, whether the needle would point to the Antarctic pole in drawing near to

Discoveries of the Portuguese. 169

that pole. It was now found to point constantly to the north. They continued sailing, till, in i486, they came to the southernmost point of Africa, and here the Cape of Tempests struck the navigators with as much dread as that of Boyador had done; but as the king entertained a hope of finding a way, on the other side of this cape, by which he might make the tour of Africa, and carry a trade as far as the Indies, he changed its name to that of Cape de Bona Esper- anza, or the Cape of Good Hope ; a name which afterward verified his conjectures. Soon afterward King Emanuel, who inherited the noble emulation of his ancestors, in spite of the remonstrances of his whole kingdom, sent thither a small fleet of four ships, under the command of Vasco da Gama, who rendered his name immortal by this expedition.

Vasco doubled this cape in 1457, and sailing through unknown seas, toward the equator, he had not yet passed the Tropic of Capricorn, when he met with a civilized nation at Sofala, who spoke the Arabian tongue. From the latitude of the Canary Islands, till he came to Sofala, men, animals, and plants had all appeared to be of a new species ; and his surprise was extreme, to find in this country a people who exactly resembled those of the known continent. The Mahometan religion had made its way hither. Thus the Mussulmans, who had trav¬ elled into Africa from the east, and the Christians in sailing up by the west, met together at the extrem¬ ity of the globe.

170 Ancient and Modern History.

Having at length, found Mahometan pilots in fourteen degrees of south latitude, he landed in the kingdom of Calicut, in India, in 1498, after having discovered over fifteen hundred leagues of coast.

This voyage of da Gama made a total change in the trade of the old world. Alexander, whom cer¬ tain orators have represented only as a destroyer, and who nevertheless founded more cities than he subverted, and certainly merited the title of Great, notwithstanding his vices, had destined the city of Alexandria for the centre of commerce, and the point of union of all nations ; and it actually was so under the Ptolemys, the Romans, and the Arabians. It was the general staple of Egypt, Europe, and the Indies. In the fifteenth century, Venice brought almost all the commodities of the east and south from Alex¬ andria; and enriched herself, at the expense of the rest of Europe, by her own industry, and the igno¬ rance of other Christians; and but for da Gama’s voyage this republic would soon have become the preponderating power of Europe ; but the passage around the Cape of Good Hope turned aside the source of her riches.

Potentates had hitherto gone to war to strip each other of their territories ; they now quarrelled about settling factories. In the year 1500, no one could have pepper from Calicut, without venturing his life for it.

Alphonso d’ Albuquerque, and a small number of other famous Portuguese generals, made war succes-

Discoveries of the Portuguese. 171

sively upon the kings of Calicut, Ormuz, and Siam, and defied the Sultan of Egypt’s whole fleet. The Venetians, who were as anxious as the Egyptians to check the progress of the Portuguese, had made a proposal to this sultan, of cutting through the isth¬ mus of Suez, at their own expense, and digging a canal to join the river Nile to the Red Sea. Had this project succeeded, they would have secured the trade of India in their own hands ; but this noble design was baffled by a number of difficulties and delays, and Albuquerque, between 1510 and 1514, took Goa, a city on this side of the Ganges ; Malacca, in the Golden Chersonesus ; Aden, at the entrance of the Red Sea, on the coast of Arabia Felix; and, last of all, made himself master of Ormuz in the Persian ■'Gulf.

The Portuguese, soon after this, formed settle¬ ments all along the coast of the island of Ceylon, which produces the finest cinnamon and richest rubies of the east. They had factories at Bengal, they traded to Siam, founded the city of Macao, on the frontiers of China, and their ships frequently sailed to the eastern parts of Ethiopia, and the coasts of the Red Sea. The Molucca Islands, the only spot in the world where nature produces cloves, were discovered and conquered by them. These new set¬ tlements were formed partly by treaties, and partly by war: they were obliged sometimes to make use of force to open a new trade in this part of the world.

172 Ancient and Modern History.

Thus, in less than fifty years, the Portuguese had explored more than five thousand leagues of coast ; and became the masters of all the trade carried or in the Ethiopic and Atlantic oceans. In 1540, they had several settlements, from the Molucca Islands to the Persian Gulf. They furnished Europe with everything that nature produced useful, curious, or pleasing, and at a much cheaper rate than the Venetians could. Voyages from the Tagus to the Ganges became common, and the kingdoms of Siam and Portugal were allies.

CHAPTER CXXI.

JAPAN.

The Portuguese, after having raised themselves to be rich merchants and kings, on the coast of India, and in the Ganges peninsula, made a visit, in the year 1538, to the island of Japan.

Of all the countries in India, none better deserves the attention of a philosopher than Japan. We should have been acquainted with these islands as early as the thirteenth century, from the relation of the famous Marco Polo, a Venetian, who, having trav¬ elled overland to China, and served for a consider¬ able time under one of the sons of Genghis Khan, first conceived a notion of those islands, which we call Japan, and which by him were named Zipangri. But Polo’s contemporaries, though they would adopt the most absurd fables, would not give credit to the

*7 3

Japan.

truths which he related. His manuscript lay for a long time neglected, and almost unknown, till at length it fell into the hands of Christopher Colum¬ bus, who, upon reading it, was greatly confirmed in his hopes of discovering a new world joining together the east and the west. Columbus was only mistaken in supposing that Japan joined to the hem¬ isphere which he had lately discovered.

This kingdom bounds our continent on the east. I cannot tell why the Japanese have been called our antipodes in morals ; there can be no such antipodes among people who improve their reason. The estab¬ lished religion at Japan admits of rewards and pun¬ ishments after death. Their chief commandments, which they call divine, are exactly the same as ours : lying, incontinence, theft, and murder are equally prohibited, and, with them, it is the law of nature reduced to positive precepts. To this they add another precept, which is that of temperance, by which the use of strong liquors of all kinds is for¬ bidden ; and they extend the prohibition of murder even to the brute creation. Saka, from whom they received this law, lived about a thousand years before our common era. These people then differ from us in morality, only by the precept which relates to the preservation of beasts. They have a number of fab¬ ulous accounts; but in this they resemble all other nations, and us among the rest, who had nothing but the grossest fictions before Christianity Their customs, likewise, are different trom ours; so are

174 Ancienc and Modern History.

those of all the eastern nations, from the straits of the Hellespont to the extremity of Korea.

As the foundation of morality is the same in all nations, so there are customs in civil life which are the same throughout the world. The Japanese, for instance, visit each other on the first day of the new year, and make reciprocal presents, as the Europeans do : and relatives and friends meet together on par¬ ticular festivals.

The most remarkable thing is, that their govern¬ ment has continued for over two thousand four hun¬ dred years exactly the same in form as that of the Mahometan caliph and of modem Rome. The chiefs of religion among the Japanese have been the chiefs of the kingdom much longer than in any other nation : the succession of the pontiff kings may be traced with certainty for more than six hundred and sixty years before our era. But the government coming little by little to be divided among the laitv, they at length made themselves masters of the whole, toward the end of the sixteenth century, but without daring to destroy the race, or name of the pontiffs, whose power they had usurped. The ecclesiastical emperor, whom they call Dairi. is still revered by them like an idol, and the general of the crown, who is in fact the real emperor, treats the Dairi. whom he keeps in honorable confinement, with the utmost respect : and the Taicosamas have done no more in Japan than the I urks have done at Bagdad, and the German emperors endeavored to do at Rome.

'75

Japan.

Human nature, which is everywhere essentially the same, has placed many other resemblances be¬ tween these people and us. They have the same super¬ stitious notions of witchcraft as prevailed so long in Europe. They have their pilgrimages, and their trials by fire, which formerly made a part of our jurisprudence. Lastly, they place their illustrious men among the gods, as did the Greeks and Romans. Their pontiffs, like those of Rome — if J may be allowed the comparison — have the sole right of canonization, and of dedicating temples to those whom they judge deserving of them. The priests are in everything distinguished from the laity, and a reciprocal contempt prevails between the two orders. They have for a long time had monks, recluses, and even regular orders among them, not unlike our military' ones ; for there was an ancient society of anchorets in japan, who made a vow of fighting for their religion.

But, notwithstanding an establishment of this kind, which seems a kind of prelude to civil wars, such as were occasioned in Europe, by the Teutonic Order of Prussia, liberty of conscience is universally allowed in this country, as well as throughout all the east. Japan, though under the government of a pontiff king, was divided into several sects; but all these sects were united in the same principles of morality. Those who believed the metempsychosis, and those who denied it, equally abstained from eating the flesh of those animals which are of use to man. The

176 Ancient and Modern History.

whole nation lived upon rice, pulse, fish, and fruits, and with them temperance seemed rather a virtue than a superstition.

The doctrine of Confucius has made great prog¬ ress in this empire. As it confines itself wholly to simple morality, it has captivated the minds of all who are not attached to the bonzes, which has always been the widest part of the nation. It is thought that this doctrine has contributed not a little to over¬ throw the Dairi’s power. The emperor who reigned in 1700 was professedly of this religion.

They seem to have made a worse use of this doctrine in Japan than in China. The Japanese phi¬ losophers regard suicide as a virtuous action, when it does not injure society. The violent and haughty disposition of these islanders frequently leads them to put it in practice, and this crime is much more common in Japan than even in England.

Liberty of conscience, as remarks that authentic and learned traveller, Kampfer, has always been allowed in Japan, as well as throughout all of Asia. A number of different religions were suf¬ fered to settle in Japan; and God thus permitted a way to be opened for the Gospel in these vast regions. Everyone knows the amazing progress which it made in almost half of this great empire at the end of the sixteenth century. The famous embassy of three Christian princes of Japan to Pope Gregory XIII. is perhaps the most flattering homage which the see of Rome ever received. This immense

Japan. 177

country where, at present, everyone who enters must abjure Christianity, and where the Dutch are admitted only on condition of performing no act of religion, was once on the eve of becoming a Christian, and perhaps a Portuguese, kingdom. Our priests then received more honors there than even at home, and, at present, a price is set upon their heads, and that a very considerable one too, being no less than twelve thousand livres. The indiscretion of a Portuguese priest, who would not give place to one of the king’s chief officers, was the first occasion of this great revolution. Another was the obstinacy of certain Jesuits, who stood up too strictly for their rights, and refused to restore a house, which a Jap¬ anese noble had given them, and which his son after¬ ward claimed again. The third and last, was the apprehension of the people themselves, of being sub¬ jected by the Christians, and this caused a civil war. We shall hereafter see how the Christian religion, which first introduced itself into this country by peaceable missions, ended by war.

At present let us confine ourselves to what Japan was at that time ; to the antiquity which this nation boasts in common with the Chinese ; and to that suc¬ cession of pontiff kings, which precedes our era by above six centuries; and, in particular, let us not omit to remark that these are the only people of Asia who have never been conquered. The Japanese have been compared to the English for that insular

haughtiness which is common to both nations, and Vol. 27—12

178 Ancient and Modern History.

the disposition to suicide, which is thought so fre¬ quent in these two extremities of our hemisphere. But Japan has never been subdued, whereas Great Britain has been conquered more than once. The Japanese do not appear to be a mixture of many different people, as the English, and all our northern nations. They seem rather to be aborigines. Their laws, worship, manners, and language have nq resemblance to those of the Chinese ; ' and China itself seems to have had an original existence of its own, and not to have received anything from other nations, till very lately. You are struck with the great antiquity of the Asiatic nations, none of whom, the Tartars excepted, ever spread themselves to any great distance from their own borders, and at the same time you see that a nation, very limited in strength, extent and numbers, and hardly till this time mentioned in the history of the world, sent forth a few adventurers from the port of Lisbon, who dis¬ covered these immense countries, and settled them¬ selves there in all the pomp of power.

No trade was ever so advantageous to the Portu¬ guese as that of Japan. Dutch writers tell us that they brought from there every year three hundred tons of gold ; now everyone knows that a hundred thousand florins make what the Dutch call a ton. This is greatly exaggerating matters, but it is evi¬ dent by the extreme care which these industrious and indefatigable republicans have taken to exclude all nations but their own from trading with Japan that

Japan. 179

it must, especially in the beginning, have been immensely advantageous. They bought the best tea in Asia there, the finest earthenware, and amber¬ gris ; and, lastly, gold and silver, the principal object of all these undertakings.

This country, like China, possesses almost all those things which we have ; and almost all that we want. It is as well peopled as China, in proportion to its size ; and the natives are more fierce and warlike. These people were formerly much superior to ours in all the liberal and mechanical arts. But how nobly have we redeemed our lost time ! The countries where a Bramantes and a Michelangelo have built the cathedral of Rome ; where a Raphael has painted ; where a Newton has calculated infinites; and where “ Cinna,” and “ Atlialie” have been written, are now the first countries on earth. Other nations are no better than barbarians, or chil¬ dren, in the fine arts, notwithstanding their boasted antiquity, and all that nature has done for them.

I shall not, in this place, make any mention of the kingdom of Siam, which was not known till the time of Louis XIV., who received an embassy from there, and sent over troops and missionaries, who proved equally useless ; nor shall I detain you with an account of the people of Tonquin, Laos, and Cochin-China, as they have been but little visited, and not at all till long after the expeditions of the Portuguese, and as our trade has never been able to make any great progress in these countries.

1 80 Ancient and Modern History.

The powers of Europe, and the traders who enrich them, had no other view in all these discoveries than to find out new treasures. Philosophers, however, have by this means discovered a new world in morality and physics. An easy passage being opened from all the ports of Europe to the farther parts of the Indies, gave us an opportunity of indulg¬ ing our curiosities with the ocular demonstration of whatever we were ignorant of, or concerning which we had but an imperfect knowledge from the false relations of ancient writers. What subjects were offered to the reflecting mind in beholding, on the farther shores of the Congo, inhabited by an innum¬ erable multitude of blacks, the vast coast of Kaffra- ria, where the inhabitants are all of an olive color, and deprive themselves of one testicle in honor of the deity, while the Ethiopians, and many other peo¬ ple of Africa, content themselves with offering only a part of their foreskins ! Then, in returning to Sofala, Quiloa, Mombasa, and Melind, to meet with blacks of a still different species from those of Nigritia, as well as whites, and others of a copper color, all of whom spring from the same common parent ; and all these countries abounding in animals and vegetables wholly unknown to our climates !

In the middle parts of Africa there is a race, though very few in number, of small men who are as white as snow, with faces like those of the negroes, and round eyes, exactly resembling those of a par¬ tridge. Two of these have been seen in France, and

Japan. 181

some of them are yet to be met with in the eastern parts of Asia.

The vast peninsula of the Indus, which runs from the mouths of the Nile and the Ganges to the middle of the Maidive Islands, is inhabited by twenty different nations, whose manners and religion have not the least resemblance to one another. The natives of the country are of a deep copper color. Dampier met with men in the isle of Timor whose skins are the color of brass ; so greatly does nature vary in her productions.

In the Indus peninsula on this side of the Ganges dwell a great number of Banians, who are descended from the ancient Brahmins. These people are strongly attached to the ancient doctrine of the met¬ empsychosis, and the two principles which prevail in all the provinces of India, and will not eat any¬ thing that has the breath of life; they resemble the Jews in obstinately refusing to incorporate with any other nation; they boast the same antiquity, and, like them, devote themselves entirely to commerce.

This country in particular has preserved that cus¬ tom from time immemorial by which women are encouraged to burn themselves with the dead bodies of their husbands, in hope of being born anew.

About Surat, Cambay, and on the borders of Persia, we find the Guebers, remains of the ancient Persians, who follow the religion of Zoroaster, and like the Banians and Hebrews, will not intermix with other nations. There are several ancient Jewish

1 82 Ancient and Modern History.

families in India; they are thought to have been settled there ever since their first dispersion. On the coasts of Malabar was found a colony of Nestorian Christians, falsely called the Christians of St. Thomas, who did not know there was a Church of Rome ; these were formerly governed by a patriarch of Syria, and still acknowledge this phantom of a patriarch, who resided, or rather hid himself, in Mosul, which they pretend to be the ancient Nineveh. This weak Syriac church was, in a manner, buried beneath its own ruins by the Mahometan power, as well as were the other churches of Antioch, Jeru¬ salem, and Alexandria. The Portuguese brought the Roman Catholic religion with them into these countries, and founded an archbishopric in Goa, which now became a metropolitan see, as well as a capital city. They endeavored to reduce the Mala¬ bar Christians to obedience to the holy see, but without success. What had been effected with so much ease among the savages of America could never, with the utmost endeavors, be brought to bear with those churches which had once separated themselves from the Romish communion.

In going from Ormuz to Arabia they met with disciples of St. John, who had never heard of the Gospel, and are those we call Sabeans.

After a passage was opened through the eastern seas of India to China and Japan, and the inner parts of those countries came to be inhabited by European settlers, the customs, manners, and relig-

Japan. 183

ion of the Chinese, Japanese, and Siamese were better known to us than those of the nations border- ing upon our own had been during the barbarous ages.

Nothing is more worthy the attention of a philoso¬ pher than the apparent difference between the eastern customs and ours, which is as great as between our languages. The best governed among those nations differ from us in the nature of their polity; their arts are not like ours; their food, clothes, houses, gardens, laws, worship, and rules of decorum are all different. What can be more opposite to our customs than the manner in which the Brahmins carry on their traffic in Hindostan? The largest trades are made without speaking or writing, and only by means of signs. Indeed, how is it possible that the eastern customs should not in almost every respect differ from ours? Nature herself is not the same in their climates as she is in Europe. In the southern parts of India young people of both sexes are marriageable at seven or eight years of age, and it is a common thing to contract marriage at those years. These children become parents, and enjoy the reason they have received from nature at a time when ours has scarcely begun to unfold itself.

All these people resemble us in nothing but the passions and the universal law of reason which counteracts those passions, and impresses upon all hearts this necessary precept, “ Do not that to others which thou wouldst not have them do to thee.”

184 Ancient and Modern History.

These two characters are stamped by nature on all the different species of the human race, and are two links by which she connects them all. Everything else is purely the effect of climate and custom. Thus the city of Pegu is guarded by crocodiles, which swim around it in a vast ditch filled with water ; and at Java the women mount guard at the king’s palace.

In Siam the chief glory of the kingdom consists in possessing a white elephant. There is no corn in Malabar; and bread and wine are unknown to the inhabitants of all the isles. In one of the Phil¬ ippine Islands a tree is found, whose fruit perfectly resembles the finest bread. In the Mariana Islands they were not acquainted with the use of fire.

It is certain that we should suspend our belief with regard to many of the relations brought us from distant countries. They take more pains to send us commodities from Malabar than real truths, and an accidental circumstance is frequently mis¬ taken for an established custom. Thus we are told that at Cochin the king’s son does not inherit his kingdom, but the son of his sister. Such a regulation is plainly repugnant to the law of nature; no man would willingly disinherit his own son ; and, suppos¬ ing the king of Cochin has no sister, who is to inherit the throne? It is probable that a politic nephew might have prevailed over the rights of a son ill advised and worse assisted, and that some traveller took this accident for an established law.

Japan. 185

A hundred writers have copied after this traveller, and thus his error gains credit.

Some authors who have lived in India pretend to affirm that there is no private property in the Mogul’s dominions, which would be still more con¬ tradictory to nature than the preceding story. At the same time we are told, and by the same writers, that they have had dealings with some of the Indians who have been worth millions. Now these two assertions seem a little contradictory. Let it be always remembered that the northern conquerors established the custom of fiefs from Lombardy to India. If a Banian, therefore, had travelled into Italy in the time of Astolphus and Alboan, could he with justice have affirmed that there was no private property among the Italians? We cannot labor too assiduously to refute a notion which is so humbling to mankind, as that of there being countries where millions of people incessantly toil for one single man.

We should be as cautious in crediting those who tell us of temples dedicated to lewdness. Let us put ourselves in the place of an Indian who might be witness to some of the scandalous scenes exhibited by our monks in Europe ; should he affirm that these were the established rules of their order?

One circumstance which should claim your partic¬ ular attention is, that almost all these people have imbibed an opinion that their gods have made fre¬ quent visits to the world. Vishnu assumed nine different shapes in the Ganges peninsula ; Sammono-

1 86 Ancient and Modern History.

codom, the god of the Siamese, put on man’s form five hundred and fifty times. This notion is com¬ mon to these people, as it was to the ancient Egyp¬ tians, Greeks, and Romans. This inconsiderate, ridiculous, and universal error proceeds from a rational sentiment, which is at the bottom of all hearts. We are naturally conscious of our depend¬ ence on a Supreme Being; and error mingling itself with truth has made the gods to be considered as lords who sometimes come to visit and reform their dominions. Religion has been in many nations like astrology ; both the one and the other were prior to history, and both have been equally a mixture of truth and imposture. The first observers of the stars ascribed fictitious influences to them; the founders of strange religions, while they acknowledged the existence of a God, sullied His worship with super¬ stitious practices.

Amidst the number of different religions, there is not one which has not made atonement for sins its chief end. Man has always felt a conviction that he stood in need of Divine clemency. This gave rise to those frightful penances to which the Bonzes, Brahmins, and Fakirs voluntarily subject them¬ selves; and which, at the time that they seem to cry aloud for mercy upon human kind, have become a trade by which they get their livelihood.

I shall not enter upon the endless detail of all their customs, but there is one which appears so foreign to our manners that I cannot forbear mentioning it*

Japan. 187

this is, that the Brahmins carry in procession the Phallum of the Egyptians, or the Roman Priapus. Our notions of decency would induce us to imagine that a ceremony which to us appears so infamous could never have been invented but by the spirit of lewdness itself; yet it is hardly to be supposed that depravity of manners could have established a relig¬ ious ceremony among any people whatsoever. On the contrary, it is rather probable that this custom was at first introduced in the times of innocence ; and that in the beginning they thought only of honor¬ ing the Deity in the symbol of that life which He has given us. A ceremony of this kind necessarily in¬ spired youth with licentious notions, and appeared ridiculous to graver minds, as the world became more refined, more corrupted, or more knowing. But the ancient custom has been preserved, notwith¬ standing the abuse made of it; and there are few nations which have not preserved some ceremony which they could neither approve nor suppress.

After a review of so many extravagant notions and whimsical superstitions, would one readily believe that all the heathen people of India acknowledge, like us, an infinitely perfect Being, whom they term “ The being of beings, the supreme being, invisible, incomprehensible, without form, the creator and preserver, just and merciful, who delights to bring to eternal happiness ? ” And yet these notions are actually contained in the Vedam, which is the Bible

1 88 Ancient and Modern History.

of the ancient Brahmins; and are diffused through all the writings of the modern Brahmins.

A learned Danish missionary on the coast of Zan¬ zibar, quotes several passages and forms of prayer, which seem the result of the most enlightened reason and refined sanctity. One of these is taken from a book entitled “Varabadu ” : “ O supreme being of all beings, lord of heaven and earth, I cannot contain thy perfections in my heart. Before whom shall I deplore my misery if thou abandonest me ; thou to whom I owe my support and preservation ? Without thee I cannot live. Call me then, O Lord, and I may come toward thee.”

And yet, notwithstanding this wisdom and sub¬ limity in the doctrine, the vilest and most supersti¬ tious follies prevail in the exercise of their religion. This is a contradiction too common to human nature ; the Greeks and Romans had the same idea of a Supreme Being, and yet they added such a number of inferior deities, the people worshipped these deities in so many superstitious ways, and stifled the truth under such a load of fictions that there was no distinguishing what was deserving of veneration from what merited contempt.

But you must not waste your time in inquiring into the numberless sects into which India was divided. Error appears there in too many shapes ; besides, it is probable that our travellers have sometimes taken different rites for opposite sects. Every college of priests in ancient Greece and Rome had its particu-

Ethiopia, or Abyssinia. 189

lar ceremonies and sacrifices. Hercules was not wor¬ shipped after the same manner as Apollo, nor Juno like Venus; and yet all these forms of worship belonged to the same religion.

The people of our western hemisphere, in all these discoveries, gave proofs of a great superiority of genius and courage over the eastern nations. We have settled ourselves among them, and frequently in spite of their resistance. We have learned their languages, and have taught them some of our arts ; but nature has given them one advantage which overbalances all ours; which is, that they do not want us, but we them.

CHAPTER CXXII.

ETHIOPIA, OR ABYSSINIA.

Before the time of these discoveries our western nations knew nothing of Ethiopia, besides the name. It was in the reign of the famous John II. of Portu¬ gal that Don Francisco d’ Alvarez made his way into these vast regions which lie between the tropic and the equinoctial line, and are very difficult of access by sea.

On his arrival he found the Christian religion established in this country, not as it is among us, but as it was practised among the first Jews who embraced it, before the total separation of the two rites. This mixture of Judaism and Christianity has continued to be the established religion of Ethiopia

190 Ancient and Modern History.

to this day. They keep the Jewish and Christian sabbath, and baptize and circumcise their children. The priests are permitted to marry ; divorce is gen¬ erally allowed ; and polygamy is the custom here as well as among the rest of the eastern Jews.

Alvarez was the first who discovered the true posi¬ tion of the head of the Nile, and the cause of that river’s periodical overflowings ; two things which were wholly unknown to the ancients, even to the Egyptians themselves.

Alvarez’s relation of these matters continued a long time to be of the number of those truths which are little known; and even to this time too many authors have echoed the errors of antiquity in assert¬ ing that it was not permitted to man to discover the sources of the Nile. The name of Prester John was at this time given to the negus or king of Ethiopia, without any other reason than because he pretended to be descended from the race of Solomon by the queen of Sheba, and that it was foretold, after the Crusades, that a Christian prince should be found in the world, named Prester John. However, the negus was neither a Christian nor a priest.

All the advantages reaped from the voyages to Ethiopia consisted in obtaining an embassy to be sent from the king of this country to Pope Clement VII. The country was very poor, though abounding in mines full of silver. The inhabitants, who were not so industrious as the Americans, knew not how to make use of these riches, nor yet to avail themselves

Ethiopia, or Abyssinia. 191

of those more substantial treasures which the earth furnishes to supply men’s real wants.

Accordingly, we find that a negus of Ethiopia, named David, sent a letter to the Portuguese gov¬ ernor in the Indies, requesting him to supply him with workmen of all kinds : this was being indeed very poor. Three-fourths of Africa, America, and the northern part of Asia were in the same state of indigence. We are apt to think, amidst the ease and plenty we enjoy in our cities, that all the world resembles us, never reflecting that men lived for a long time like other animals, almost destitute of food and shelter, in the midst of mines of gold and diamonds.

This kingdom of Ethiopia, which we have heard so greatly extolled, was in fact so defenceless that a petty Mahometan king, who was master of a neighboring canton, made almost the entire conquest of it in the beginning of the sixteenth century. We have a famous letter of John Bermudes to Sebastian, king of Portugal, which may convince us, either that the Ethiopians are not that unconquerable people of whom Herodotus speaks, or that they are greatly degenerated.

This Latin patriarch was sent, with a few Portu¬ guese soldiers, to protect the young negus of Abys¬ sinia against the Moorish king before mentioned, who had invaded his dominions ; but it unfortunately happened that after the negus was restored, the patriarch still insisted upon continuing his protector.

192 Ancient and Modern History.

He was his godfather, and thought himself his mas¬ ter, on account of being his father and a patriarch. He therefore commanded him to submit to the pope’s authority, and threatened him with excommunica¬ tion in case of refusal. Alphonso d’Albuquerque did not behave with greater haughtiness toward the petty princes in the Ganges peninsula than the patriarch did to this monarch. But the godson being firmly settled again on his golden throne, paid little regard to the commands or menaces of his godfather ; and, instead of acknowledging the pope’s authority, expelled the patriarch from his dominions.

This same Bermudes pretends that, on the fron¬ tiers lying between Abyssinia and the territories bor¬ dering on the source of the Nile, there is a small dis¬ trict where two-thirds of the earth is filled with gold. This was what the Portuguese went in search of, but they were disappointed in their expectations. This was the true occasion of those voyages of which the patriarchs were the pretext. There is reason to be¬ lieve that the earth in Africa contains great quanti¬ ties of this metal, which has put the whole world in motion. The gold sands which roll down its rivers plainly show that there is a large supply of this ore in the neighboring mountains. But hitherto this supply has eluded the search of avarice ; and, in consequence of the efforts made in America and Asia, we are less liable to prosecute any attempts in the middle of Africa.

Columbus and America.

193

CHAPTER CXXIII.

COLUMBUS AND AMERICA.

It is to these discoveries of the Portuguese in the old world that we are indebted for the new, if we may call the conquest of America an obligation, which proved so fatal to its inhabitants, and at times to the conquerors themselves.

This was doubtless the most important event that ever happened on our globe, one-half of which had hitherto been strangers to the other. Whatever had been esteemed most great or noble before seemed absorbed in this kind of new creation. We still mention with respectful admiration the names of the Argonauts, who did not perform the hundredth part of what was done by the sailors under da Gama and Albuquerque. How many altars would have been raised by the ancients to a Greek who had dis¬ covered America ! And yet Bartholomew and Chris¬ topher Columbus were not thus rewarded.

Columbus, struck with the wonderful expeditions of the Portuguese, imagined that something greater might yet be done ; and from a bare inspection of the map of our world concluded that there must be another, which might be found by sailing always west. He had courage equal to his genius, or indeed superior, seeing he had to struggle with the preju¬ dices of his contemporaries, and the repulses of sev¬ eral princes to whom he tendered his services.

Vol. 27 — 13

194 Ancient and Modern History.

Genoa, which was his native country, treated his schemes as visionary, and by that means lost the only opportunity that could have offered of aggran¬ dizing her power. Henry VII., king of England, who was too greedy of money to hazard any on this noble attempt, would not listen to the proposals made by Columbus’s brother; and Columbus himself was rejected by John II. of Portugal, whose attention was wholly employed on the coast of Africa. He had no prospect of success in applying to the French, whose marine lay totally neglected, and their affairs more confused than ever, during the minority of Charles A III. The emperor Maximilian had neither ports for shipping, money to fit out a fleet, nor suffi¬ cient courage to engage in a scheme of this nature. The A enetians indeed might have undertaken it ; but whether the natural aversion of the Genoese to these people w ould not suffer Columbus to applv to the rivals of his country, or the Venetians had no idea of anything more important than the trade they carried on from Alexandria and in the Levant ; Columbus at length fixed all his hopes on the court of Spain.

Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella, queen of Castile, had by their marriage united all Spain under one dominion, excepting only the kingdom of Granada, which was still held by the Moors, but which Ferdinand soon after took from them. The union of these two princes had prepared the way for the greatness of Spain, which was afterward begun

Columbus and America. 195

by Columbus ; however, he was obliged to undergo eight years of incessant application before Isabella’s court would consent to accept of the inestimable benefit this great man offered it. The bane of all great projects is the want of money. The Spanish court was poor ; and the prior Perez, and two mer¬ chants named Pinzono, were obliged to advance sev¬ enteen thousand ducats toward fitting out the arma¬ ment. Columbus procured a patent from the court, and at length set sail from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, with three small ships,' on Aug. 23, 1492.

It was more than a month after his departure from the Canary Islands, where he had anchored to get refreshments, when Columbus discovered the first island in America ; and during this short run he suffered more from the murmurings and discontent of the people of his fleet than he had done even from the refusals of the princes he had applied to. This island, which he discovered and named San Salva¬ dor, lies about a thousand leagues from the Canaries. He soon after discovered the Bahamas, together with those of Cuba and Hispaniola, now called San Domingo.

Ferdinand and Isabella were surprised to see him return at the end of nine months — on March 15, 1493 — with some of the American natives of His¬ paniola, several rarities from that country, and a quantity of gold, with which he presented their majesties.

The king and queen made him sit down in their

196 Ancient and Modern History.

presence, covered like a grandee of Spain, and created him high-admiral and viceroy of the new world. Columbus was now regarded as an extraor¬ dinary person sent from heaven. Everyone was vying who should be foremost in assisting him in his undertakings, and embarking under his com¬ mand. He soon set sail again, with a fleet of seven¬ teen ships. He now made the discovery of several new islands, particularly the Caribbeans and Jamaica. Doubt had been changed to admiration on his first voyage, in this second, admiration was turned into envy.

He was admiral and viceroy, and to these titles he might have added that of the benefactor of Fer¬ dinand and Isabella. Nevertheless, he was brought home to Spain a prisoner by judges who had been purposely sent out on board his fleet to observe his conduct. As soon as it was known that Columbus had arrived, the people ran to meet him, as the guardian genius of Spain. Columbus was brought from the ship, and appeared on shore chained hands and feet.

He had been thus treated by the orders of Fon¬ seca, bishop of Burgos, the intendant of the expedi¬ tion, whose ingratitude was as great as the other’s services. Isabella was ashamed of what she saw, and did all in her power to make Columbus amends for the injuries done to him; however, he was not suffered to depart again for four years, either because they feared that he would seize what he

Columbus and America. 197

had discovered for himself, or they wished to have time to observe his behavior. At length, in 1498, he was sent on another voyage to his new world ; and now it was that he discovered the continent at six degrees distance from the equator, and saw that part of the coast on which Cartagena has been since built.

At the time that Columbus first promised a new hemisphere, it was insisted that no such hemisphere could exist ; and after he had made the actual dis¬ covery of it, it was pretended that it had been known long before. I shall not mention one Martin Behem, of Nuremberg, who, it is said, went from that city to the Straits of Magellan in 1460, with a patent from a duchess of Burgundy, who, as she was not alive at that time, could not issue patents. Nor shall I take notice of the pretended charts of this Martin Behem, which are still shown, nor of the evident contradictions which discredit this story ; but, in short, it was not pretended that Martin Behem had peopled America ; the honor was given to the Car¬ thaginians ; and a book of Aristotle s which he never wrote — was quoted on this occasion. Some found a conformity between some words in the Caribbee and Hebrew languages, and did not fail to follow so fine an opening. Others were positive that the children of Noah, after settling in Siberia, passed over to Canada on the ice, and that their descendants, born in Canada, had gone and peopled Peru. According to others again, the Chinese and Japanese sent colonies into America, and carried

198 Ancient and Modern History.

J

over lions with them for their diversion, though there are no lions either in China or Japan. In this manner have many learned men argued upon the discoveries made by men of genius. If it should be asked how men first came upon the continent of America, it is not easily answered, that they were placed there by the same power that caused trees and grass to grow.

The reply which Columbus made to some of those who envied him the great reputation he had gained is still famous. These people pretended that nothing could be more easy than the discoveries he had made ; upon which he proposed to them to set an egg upright on one of its ends ; but when they had tried in vain to do it, he broke one end of the egg, and set it upright with ease. They told him anyone could do that. “ How comes it, then,” replied Columbus, “ that no one among you thought of it ? ” This story is related of Brunelleschi, who improved architecture at Florence, many years before Colum¬ bus was born. Most bons mots are only the repeti¬ tion of things that have been said before.

The ashes of Columbus cannot be affected bv the reputation he gained while living, in having doubled for us the works of the creation. But mankind delight to do justice to the illustrious dead, either from a vain hope that they enhance thereby the merit of the living, or that they are naturally fond of truth. Americo Vespucci, whom we call Americus Ves- pucius, a merchant of Florence, had the honor of giving his name to this new half of the globe, in

Columbus and America. 199

which he did not possess one acre of land, and pre¬ tended to be the first who discovered the continent. But supposing it true that he was the first discoverer, the glory was certainly due to the one who had the penetration and courage to undertake the first voy- age. Honor, as Newton says in his dispute with Leibnitz, is due only to the first inventor ; those that follow after are only his scholars. Columbus had made three voyages as admiral and viceroy, five years before Americus Vespucius had made one as a geographer, under the command of Admiral Ojeda; but this latter wrote to his friends at Florence that he had discovered a new world, and they believed him on his word, and the citizens of Florence decreed that a grand illumination should be made before the door of his house every three years, on the feast of All Saints. And yet, could this man be said to deserve any honors for happening to be on board a fleet that in 1489 sailed along the coast of Brazil, when Columbus had, five years before, pointed out the way to the rest of the world ?

There has lately appeared at Florence a life of this Americus Vespucius, which seems to be written with very little regard to truth, and without any con¬ clusive reasoning. Several French authors who have done justice to Columbus’s merit are there com¬ plained of ; but the writer should not have assailed the French authors, but the Spanish, who were the first that did this justice. This writer says that he will confound the vanity of the French nation, which

200 Ancient and Modern History.

has always attacked with impunity the honor and success of the Italian nation. What vanity can there be in saying that it was a Genoese who first discov¬ ered America? Or how is the honor of the Italian nation injured in owning that it was to an Italian, born at Genoa, that we are indebted for the new world? I purposely remark this want of equity, good breeding, and good sense, as we have too many examples of it ; and I must say that the good French writers have, in general, been the least guilty of this insufferable fault; and one great reason of their being so universally read throughout Europe is their doing justice to all nations.

The inhabitants of these islands, and of the conti¬ nent, were a new race of men. They were all with¬ out beards, and were as much astonished at the faces of the Spaniards as they were at their ships and artil¬ lery ; they at first looked upon these new visitors as monsters, or gods, who had come out of the sky, or the sea. These voyages and those of the Portu¬ guese had now taught us how inconsiderable a spot of the globe our Europe was, and what an astonish¬ ing variety reigns in the world. Hindostan was known to be inhabited by a race of men whose com¬ plexions were yellow. In Africa and Asia, at some distance from the equator, there had been found several kinds of black men ; and after travellers had penetrated into America as far as the line, they met with a race of people who were tolerably white. The natives of Brazil are of a bronze color. The Chinese

Columbus and America. 201

still appear to differ entirely from the rest of mankind in the cast of their eyes and noses. But what is still to be remarked is, that into whatsoever regions these various races are transplanted, their complexions never change, unless they mingle with the natives of the country. The mucous membrane of the negroes, which is known to be of a black color, is a manifest proof that there is a different principle in each species of men, as well as plants.

Dependent upon this principle, nature has formed the different degrees of genius, and the characters of nations, which are seldom known to change. Hence the negroes are slaves to other men, and are pur¬ chased on the coast of Africa like beasts, for a sum of money ; and the vast multitudes of negroes trans¬ planted into our American colonies serve as slaves under a very inconsiderable number of Europeans. Experience has also taught us how great a superi¬ ority the Europeans have over the Americans, who are everywhere easily overcome, and have not dared to attempt a revolution, though a thousand to one.

This part of America was again remarkable on account of its animals and plants, which are not to be found in the other three parts of the world, and which are of so great use to us. Horses, com of all kinds, and iron, were wanting in Mexico and Peru, and among the many valuable commodities unknown to the old world, cochineal was the principal, and was brought us from this country. Its use in dyeing has now made us forget the scarlet, which for time

202 Ancient and Modern History.

immemorial had been the only thing known for giv¬ ing a fine red color.

The importation of cochineal was soon succeeded by that of indigo, cocoa, vanilla, and those woods which serve for ornament and medicinal purposes, particularly the quinquina, or Peruvian bark, which is the only specific against intermittent fevers. Nature had placed this remedy in the mountains of Peru, while she had dispersed the disease it cured through all the rest of the world. This new con¬ tinent also furnished pearls, colored stones, and diamonds.

It is certain that America at present furnishes the meanest citizen of Europe with his conveniences and pleasures. The gold and silver mines, at their first discovery, were of service only to the kings of Spain and the merchants ; the rest of the world was impov¬ erished by them, for the great multitudes who did not follow business found themselves possessed of a very small quantity of specie, in comparison with the immense sums accumulated by those who had the advantage of the first discoveries. But by degrees the great quantity of gold and silver which was sent from America was scattered through Europe, and by passing into a number of hands the distribution has become more equal. The price of commodities has also increased in Europe, in proportion to the increase of specie.

To comprehend how the treasures of America passed from the possession of the Spaniards into that

Columbus and America.

203

of other nations, it will be sufficient to consider these two things : the use which Charles V. and Philip II. made of their money, and the manner in which other nations acquired a share in the mines of Peru.

The emperor Charles V., who was always trav¬ elling and always at war, necessarily scattered a great quantity of that specie which he received from Mexico and Peru, through Germany and Italy. When he sent his son, Philip, over to England to marry Queen Mary, and take the title of king of England, that prince deposited in the tower of Lon¬ don twenty-seven large chests of silver in bars, and a hundred horse-loads of gold and silver coin. The troubles in Flanders and the intrigues of the League in France cost this Philip, according to his own con¬ fession, above three thousand million livres of our money.

The manner in which the gold and silver of Peru is distributed among all the people of Europe, and is sent to the East Indies, is a surprising, though well-known circumstance. By a strict law enacted by Ferdinand and Isabella, and afterward confirmed by Charles V. and all the kings of Spain, all other nations were not only excluded from entering into any of the ports in Spanish America, but also from having the least share, directly or indirectly, in the trade of that part of the world. One would have imagined that this law would have enabled the Span¬ iards to subdue all Europe ; and yet Spain exists only by the continual violation of this very law. It

204 Ancient and Modern History.

can hardly furnish exports for America to the value of four millions, whereas the rest of Europe some¬ times sends over merchandise to the amount of nearly fifty millions. This prodigious trade of the nations is carried on by the Spaniards themselves, who are always faithful in their dealings with indi¬ viduals, and always cheating their king, who stands in great need of it. The Spaniards give no security to foreign merchants for the performance of their contracts; a mutual credit, without which there never could have been any commerce, supplies the place of other obligations.

The manner in which the Spaniards for a long time consigned to foreigners the gold and silver which was brought home by their galleons, was still more surprising. The Spaniard who at Cadiz is properly agent for the foreigner, delivered the bul¬ lion he received to the care of certain bravos, called meteors. These, armed with pistols and long swords, carried the bullion, in parcels properly marked, to the ramparts, and threw them over to other meteors, who waited below and carried them to the boats which were to receive them, and these boats carried them aboard the ships in the road. These meteors and the agents, together with the commis¬ saries and the guards, who never disturbed them, had each a stated fee, and the foreign merchant was never cheated. The king, who received a duty upon this money on the arrival of the galleons, was also a gainer; so that, properly speaking, the law only

Columbus and America.

205

was cheated : a law which would be absolutely use¬ less if not eluded, and which, nevertheless, cannot yet be abrogated, because old prejudices are always the most difficult to overcome.

The greatest instance of the violation of this law, and of the fidelity of the Spaniards, was in the year 1684, when war was declared between France and Spain. His Catholic majesty endeavored to seize upon the effects of all the French in his kingdom; but he in vain issued edicts and admonitions, inquiries and excommunications ; not a single Spanish agent would betray his French correspondent. This fidelity, which does so much honor to the Spanish nation, plainly shows that men willingly obey only those laws which they themselves have made for the good of society, and that those which are the mere effects of a sovereign’s will always meet with opposition.

As the discovery of America was at first the source of much good to the Spaniards, it afterward occasioned them many and considerable evils. One has been the loss to that kingdom of its subjects, by the great numbers necessarily required to people the colonies ; another was the infection of the world with a disease which was before known only in the new world, and particularly in the island of His¬ paniola. Several of the companions of Christopher Columbus returned home infected with this con¬ tagion, which afterward spread over Europe. It is certain that this poison, which taints the springs of life, was peculiar to America, as the plague and

2o6 Ancient and Modern History.

smallpox were diseases originally endemic to the southern parts of Numidia. We are not to believe that the eating of human flesh, practised by some of the American savages, occasioned this disorder. There were no cannibals on the island of Hispaniola, where it was most frequent and inveterate; neither are we to suppose, with some, that it proceeded from a too great excess of sensual pleasures. Nature has never punished excesses of this kind with such dis¬ orders in the world ; and even to this day we find that a momentary indulgence, which has been for¬ gotten for eight or ten years, may bring this cruel and shameful scourge upon the chastest union.

And now, in order to see how this half of the globe became a prey to the powers of Christendom, it will be necessary to follow the Spaniards in their dis¬ coveries and conquests.

The great Columbus, after having built several houses on these islands, and discovered the continent, returned to Spain, where he enjoyed a reputation, unsullied by rapine or cruelty, and died at Valladolid in 1506. But the governors of Cuba and Hispaniola who succeeded him, being persuaded that these prov¬ inces furnished gold, resolved to make the discovery at the price of the lives of the inhabitants. In short, whether they thought the natives had conceived an implacable hatred to them, or were apprehensive of their superior numbers ; or the rage of slaughter, when once they begun knew no bounds ; they in the space of a few years entirelv depopulated His-

Columbus and America. 207

paniola and Cuba, the former of which contained three millions of inhabitants, and the latter above six hundred thousand.

Bartholomew de las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, who was witness to these desolations, relates that they hunted down the natives with dogs. These wretched savages, almost naked and without arms, were pur¬ sued like wild beasts in a forest, devoured alive by dogs, shot to death, or surprised and burned in their habitations.

He further declares, from ocular testimony, that they frequently caused a number of these miserable wretches to be summoned by a priest to come in and submit to the Christian religion and to the king of Spain, and that after this ceremony, which was only an additional act of injustice, they put them to death without the least remorse. I believe that las Casas has exaggerated in many parts of his narrative ; but, allowing him to have said ten times more than is truth, there remains enough to make us shudder with horror.

It may seem surprising that this massacre of a whole race of men could have been carried on in the sight and under the administration of several priests of the order of St. Jerome; for we know that Car¬ dinal Ximenes, who was prime minister of Castile before the time of Charles V., sent over four monks of this order, in quality of president of the royal council of the islands. Doubtless, they were not able to resist the torrent, and the hatred of the natives to

208 Ancient and Modern History.

their new masters being, with just reason, implaca¬ ble, rendered their destruction unhappily necessary.

CHAPTER CXIV.

FERNANDO CORTES.

Fernando Cortes set sail from the island of Cuba in 1519, on a new expedition to the continent. This man, who was no more than a private lieutenant to the governor of a newly-discovered island, and had with him only six hundred men, eighteen horses, and a few field-pieces, set out to conquer the most power¬ ful state of America. At first he was fortunate to meet with a Spaniard who, having been nine years a prisoner at Yucatan, on the road to Mexico, served him as' an interpreter. An American lady, whom he called Dona Marina, became at once his mistress and chief counsellor, having learned Spanish enough to be an interpreter for him also. To complete his good fortune, he met with a volcano full of sulphur and saltpetre ; which served him to replace the pow¬ der he spent in his engagements. He coasted all along the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes caressing the natives, and at others making war upon them. On his way he met with several well-governed towns, where the arts were held in estimation. The power¬ ful republic of Tlaxcala, which flourished under an aristocratic government, opposed his further pas¬ sage ; but the sight of the horses, and the report of the cannon, soon put this ill-armed multitude to

Fernando Cortes.

209

flight, and he made peace with them on his own terms. Six thousand of these new allies accom¬ panied him from Tlaxcala on his journey to Mexico, which empire he entered without resistance, though forbidden by the sovereign ; who, nevertheless, had thirty vassal kings under his command, each of whom could appear in the field at the head of a hun¬ dred thousand men, armed with those sharp stones which they used instead of steel.

The city of Mexico, which was built in the midst of a large lake, was one of the most noble monu¬ ments of American industry. Immense causeways went across this lake, raised upon small boats made of the trunks of trees hollowed. The city abounded with spactous and convenient houses, built of stone ; noble squares, market-places, and shops full of the most curious pieces of workmanship, carved and engraved in gold and silver ; rich vessels of painted porcelain ; cotton stuffs ; and ornaments of feathers ; which formed the most beautiful patterns with the variety of their colors and shades. Near the great market-place stood a palace, where all disputes between the traders were decided in an expeditious manner, like those justice courts of the consuls at Paris, which were first established by Charles IX., after the destruction of the empire of Mexico. Sev¬ eral palaces belonging to the emperor Montezuma, added to the magnificence of this city. One of them, raised on columns of jasper, was set apart for con¬ taining the curiosities which minister only to Vol. 27 — 14

no Ancient and Modern History.

pleasure. Another was filled with offensive and defensive weapons, richly adorned with gold and precious stones. A third was surrounded by spacious gardens, wholly devoted to the raising of medicinal plants, proper officers distributing them to the sick, and giving an account of the success attending the use of them to the ruler ; and these physicians also kept a register of cases, after their manner, being unacquainted with writing. The other articles of magnificence prove only the progress of the arts in that kingdom ; this latter shows the progress of morality.

If it were not incident to human nature to blend the best things with the worst, we should not be able to conceive how this moral institution c<5uld agree with those barbarous sacrifices in which human blood was poured forth in torrents before their idol, Huitzilopochtli, who was worshipped by them as the god of armies. The ambassador of Montezuma told Cortes, as it is pretended, that their master had sacrificed every year, during his wars, nearly twenty thousand enemies in the great temple of Mexico. This is a great exaggeration, and evidently cal¬ culated to cover over the injustices committed by the conqueror of Montezuma; but when the Spaniards afterward entered the grand temple of Mexico, they actually found, among other ornaments, a great num¬ ber of human skulls, hung up by way of trophies ; in the same manner as the ancients have described to us the temple of Diana in the Taurica Chersonesus.

Fernando Cortes.

21 I

The religions of most nations have had something inhuman and bloody in their institutions. The Gauls, Carthaginians, and Syrians offered human victims to their deities. The Jewish law, itself, seems to allow of these sacrifices ; and it is said in Leviticus, “ If a living soul has been vowed to God, no one shall redeem it, that soul shall surely die.” The Jewish writings tell us that, when that nation invaded the small country of the Canaanites, they put the men, women, children, and domestic animals of several villages to the sword, because they had been vowed to God. On this law were founded the oaths of Jephthah and Saul, the first of whom sacrificed his daughter, and the other would have slain his own son, had he not been withheld by the cries of the army. And by this law it was that Samuel slew King Agag, Saul's prisoner, and hewed him in pieces before the camp of the Israelites — an action as bar¬ barous and shocking to human nature as any that was ever practised by the most ruthless savages, and which indeed would have been a most enormous crime, had not God Himself, in whose hands are life and death, and whom no man can call to account, seen fit to order it so, in the unfathomable depths of His divine justice. But it appears that the Mexicans sacrificed only their enemies, and were not cannibals, like some of the American tribes.

Their policy was, in every other respect, prudent and humane. The education of youth was one of the principal objects of government, and there were

212 Ancient and Modern History.

public schools established for those of both sexes. We still admire the Egyptians for having discovered that the year consisted of three hundred and sixty- five days. Astronomy was carried to as great a length among the Mexicans.

They had reduced war to a regular art, which had given them a great superiority over all of their neighbors ; and the exact management of the public treasury maintained the empire in lustre, and made it equally feared and envied by surrounding nations.

But the warlike animals on which the Spaniards were mounted ; the artificial thunders which seemed formed under their hands ; the floating wooden cas¬ tles, which had brought them over the ocean ; the steel armor which defended them from the enemies’ darts; and the rapid victories with which they marked their progress in all places where they came : all these subjects of wonder, added to that natural weakness which inclines men to admiration, had such an effe€t on the Mexicans that as soon as Cortes appeared before that city, Montezuma received him as his master, and the inhabitants as their God. The streets were lined with people, on their knees, to see a Spanish subaltern march through.

Those who have given us a history of these sur¬ prising events have thought fit to enhance them by supposed miracles, which have rather lessened their true merit. The only real miracle was in Cortes’s behavior. By degrees Montezuma and his court, coming to be better acquainted with their new guests.

Fernando Cortes.

213

ventured to treat them like men ; a party of these Spaniards being at Vera Cruz, on the road to Mex¬ ico, a general was despatched with private orders from the emperor to attack them; and, though his troops were routed in the engagement, they killed three or four Spaniards, and sent one of their heads to Montezuma. Upon this, Cortes did the boldest thing that ever was attempted by politician; he went directly to the palace, followed by fifty of his Spaniards, and Dona Marina, who always accom¬ panied him as his interpreter; and after having tried persuasion and menaces, he brought the emperor prisoner with him to the Spanish quarters, where he obliged him to deliver up those who had attacked his people at Vera Cruz, then loaded him with irons, as a general would punish a private sol¬ dier, and obliged him publicly to acknowledge him¬ self a vassal to the emperor Charles V.

Montezuma and the chiefs of his empire then delivered to Cortes, as the tribute annexed to their homage, six hundred thousand marks of pure gold, together with an incredible quantity of jewels, and pieces of exquisite workmanship in gold, with what¬ ever the industry of several ages had executed of most rare and valuable. Cortes reserved a fifth part of these treasures for the use of his master, kept another fifth for himself, and divided the rest among his soldiers.

It may be reckoned among the greatest prodigies that, notwithstanding the mutual jealousies and

214 Ancient and Modern History.

divisions which reigned among the conquerors of the new world, and were carried to the greatest extremes, their conquests never suffered. Never did truth wear so little an appearance of probability. While Cortes was subduing the empire of Mexico with five hundred men, which were all he had left, Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, more offended at the reputation which his lieutenant had gained than at his want of submission to his authority, sent almost all the troops he had under his command, which consisted of eight hundred foot, and eighty horsemen well mounted, together with two small pieces of cannon, to reduce Cortes, and take him prisoner, and afterward pursue the plan of his victories.

Cortes, who had now a thousand of his own coun¬ trymen to fight against, and the whole continent to keep in subjection, left eighty of his people to take care of the kingdom of Mexico, and marched with the rest to give battle to those whom Velasquez had sent against him. He defeated one part, and found means to gain over the rest. In short, this little army, which came bent upon his destruction, enlisted under his standard, and he led them back to Mexico.

The emperor was still confined in prison, guarded by the eighty men whom Cortes had left behind in the city. Alvarado, the officer who commanded them, on a false report that the Mexicans had formed a conspiracy to deliver their emperor, took the opportunity of a public festival, while two thou-

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Fernando Cortes.

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sand of the principal lords of the kingdom were drowned in the excess of strong liquors, to fall upon them with fifty of his soldiers, who murdered them, and all their attendants, without the least resistance ; after which, he stripped them of all the gold, orna¬ ments and jewels with which they had decked them¬ selves on this public occasion. This outrage, which was justly imputed to a villainous avarice, effectually roused these too patient people, who instantly revolted against their perfidious conquerors; and when Cortes arrived at Mexico, he found two hun¬ dred thousand Americans in arms against his eighty Spaniards, who had enough to do to defend them¬ selves, and retain the emperor their prisoner. The Mexicans besieged Cortes in his quarters, resolved to deliver their prince ; and, without the least regard to their lives, rushed in crowds upon the cannon and small arms, which made a dreadful slaughter among them. Antonio de Solis calls this action a revolt, and their intrepid bravery, brutality. So apt are writers to catch the spirit of injustice from con¬ querors.

Montezuma was slain in one of these engagements, by a wound he unluckily received from one of his own subjects. Cortes had the insolence to propose to this monarch, of whose death he was the cause, to embrace Christianity before he expired, and his mistress, Dona Marina, was to be the catechist. The unhappy prince died, vainly imploring the ven¬ geance of heaven against these usurpers of his

21 6 Ancient and Modern History.

kingdom. He left behind him children still weaker than himself, whom the kings of Spain have, without the least apprehension, left in possession of several lands in Mexico; and, to this day, there are some of the descendants of this emperor in a right line, who live in the city of Mexico, and are called the counts of Montezuma. They are at present no more than private gentlemen, are of the Christian religion, and live confounded in the throng.

After the death of Montezuma, the Mexicans elected a new emperor, who, like them, thirsted for revenge upon his tyrant conquerors. This was the famous Guatimozin, whose destiny proved still more fatal than that of his predecessor. Immediately upon his election, he armed all his subjects against the Spaniards.

Despair, an unquenchable thirst of revenge, and implacable hatred, now carried this wretched mul¬ titude madly on, against those very people whom, but a little before, they did not dare to approach but on the knees. The Spaniards were wearied with slaying, and the Americans continued to be slaugh¬ tered in crowds, without being in the least dismayed. Cortes now found himself obliged to abandon the city, where he was in danger of being starved ; but the Indians had broken down the causeways : how¬ ever, the Spaniards made themselves a bridge of the dead bodies of their enemies; but, in this bloody retreat, they lost all the treasures they had won for Charles V. and for themselves. Every day’s march

Fernando Cortes.

217

was a battle, in which some Spaniard lost his life, which was paid for by the deaths of thousands of these wretched people, who fought almost naked.

Cortes had no fleet; he therefore employed his soldiers, and the Indians he had with him, in build¬ ing nine boats, with which he proposed to enter Mexico by the very lake which seemed to shut him out from that city.

The Mexicans had no apprehensions in venturing on a naval fight ; they covered the lake with five thousand boats, each carrying two men, and ad¬ vanced to attack Cortes’s nine boats, which carried about three hundred men. But these, having their field-pieces with them, soon destroyed the Mexican fleet, while Cortes with the remainder of his troops, attacked them from the causeways. The Spaniards, with the loss of only twenty men killed, and seven taken prisoners, achieved a more important victory in this part of the world than had ever been accom¬ plished by all the multitudes slain in our battles. The Mexicans sacrificed the prisoners they had taken in their grand temple; but, at length, after several successive engagements, Guatimozin and his wife were made prisoners by the Spaniards. This is the Guatimozin so famous for the speech he made, when a receiver of the king of Spain’s treasures ordered him to be laid on a coal fire, to discover in what part of the lake he had hidden his riches ; his high priest, who was sentenced to the same punishment, and lay broiling by his side, could not refrain from

2i 8 Ancient and Modern History.

crying out aloud; when Guatimozin rebuked him sternly, saying: “Am I, thinkest thou, on a bed of roses ? ”

Cortes had now, in 1521, made himself absolute master of the city of Mexico, and the whole empire was reduced to the Spanish dominion, as were also Golden Castile, Darien, and all the neighboring territories.

What now was the reward Cortes met with for such unheard-of services ? The same as Columbus ; he was persecuted, and by that very bishop, Fonseca, who, after having been instrumental in sending home the discoverer of America, loaded with chains, wanted now to treat its conqueror in the same man¬ ner. In short, notwithstanding the titles which his country bestowed upon him, at his return he was held but in slight estimation. It was with difficulty that he could even obtain an audience with Charles V. One day, he pushed through the crowd that surrounded the emperor’s coach, and got on the step of the door, when Charles asked who that man was. “ It is he,” answered Cortes, “ who has given you more dominions than your ancestors left you towns.”

CHAPTER CXXV.

THE CONQUEST OF PERU.

Although Cortes had conquered for Charles V. a new country of over two hundred leagues in length, and one hundred and fifty in breadth, this was

Conquest of Peru. 219

deemed a small achievement. The isthmus which confines the continent of America between two seas is not more than twenty-five common leagues over ; and from the top of a mountain near Nombre de Dios a spectator may behold on one side the North Sea, and on the other the Pacific Ocean. In 1513, then, an attempt was made to discover by this South Sea new countries to conquer.

In 1527, Diego d’Almagro, and Francisco Pizarro, two private adventurers, who hardly knew who were their fathers, and whose education had been so much neglected that they could neither write nor read, were the persons by whose industry Charles V. acquired a new tract of country, far more extensive and rich than Mexico itself. At first they discovered about three hundred leagues of coast; soon after¬ ward they were told that, about the equinoctial line, and beneath the other tropic, there was an immense country, in which gold, silver, and precious stones were as common as wood, and that this country was governed by a king as absolute as Montezuma ; for throughout the universe despotism is ever the con¬ sequence of great riches.

From Cuzco and the parts bordering on the tropic of Capricorn, as far as the Pearl Islands, which lie in six degrees south latitude, the whole country is under the dominion of one absolute monarch, who extends his despotic sway over a tract of nearly thirty degrees. This monarch was of the race of those conquerors called Incas, and his name was

2io Ancient and Modern History.

Atahualpa ; his father, who had conquered the whole country of Quito, which is at present the capital of Peru, had by the labor of his soldiers, and the peo¬ ple he had conquered, made a great road, more than five hundred leagues in length, from Cuzco to Quito, over vast precipices, and rugged mountains. This noble monument of obedience and human industry has been neglected by the Spaniards. A number of couriers, stationed every half league, carried the orders of this mighty monarch to all parts of the kingdom. Thus much for the policy. To form a judgment of the magnificence of this empire, it will be sufficient to know that whenever the king went on a journey, he was seated on a throne of gold, which weighed twenty-five thousand ducats, and the litter, which was made of plates of pure gold, on which this throne was carried, was borne on the shoulders of the chief grandees of the kingdom.

Francisco Pizarro began the conquest of this em¬ pire with two hundred and fifty foot, sixty horse¬ men, and about a dozen small field-pieces, which were drawn by the captives he had taken in his march through the country. He arrived off Quito, which is on the other side of the equator, by way of the Pacific. Atahualpa was then at Quito, at the head of about forty thousand soldiers armed with darts, and long pikes of gold and silver. Pizarro began, as Cortes had done at Mexico, by sending ambassadors to the Inca with offers of friendship, in the name of his master, Charles V. The Inca

Conquest of Peru. 221

returned for answer, that he should not receive as friends the despoilers of his country, till they had restored all they had taken in their route ; and imme¬ diately he marched to meet the Spaniards. When the Inca’s army and the Castilian troops met, the Spaniards endeavored to have even the appearance of religion on their side, and sent a monk, named Valverda, whom they had made bishop of a country they had not yet conquered, into the Inca’s camp. The priest advanced toward the emperor with a Bible in his hand, and an interpreter by his side, who told the monarch that he must believe what was written in that book. After this he made a long ser¬ mon on the mysteries of the Christian faith. His¬ torians are not agreed concerning the manner in which this sermon was received ; but they all acknowledge that this harangue ended in a battle.

The artillery, horses, and steel armor produced the same effect on the Peruvians as they had done on the Mexicans ; and the Spaniards had nothing to do but to kill them. Atahualpa was dragged from his golden throne by the conquerors, and loaded with chains.

The captive emperor, in order to procure a speedy deliverance, promised too large a ransom : according to Herrara and Zarata, he obliged himself to give as much gold as the hall of one of his palaces would contain, heaped as high as his hand, which he held over his head. His couriers were instantly des¬ patched on all sides to collect this immense ransom :

222 Ancient and Modern History.

gold and silver were brought in prodigious quan¬ tities to the Spaniard’s quarters every day; but whether the Peruvians were wearied with stripping themselves to release their captive emperor, or Ata- hualpa was not sufficiently pressing with them, he could not fulfil the whole of his promise. This exasperated the conquerors, who had formed ideas of immense riches, and finding their avarice disap¬ pointed, they grew furious, and condemned the emperor to be burned alive ; but promised him this favor, that if he would turn to the Christian religion, they would strangle him before he was burned. Accordingly he was baptized by Valverda, who, by the mouth of an interpreter, read him a long lecture upon Christianity, after which he was hanged, and then thrown into the fire. Some writers, who were eye-witnesses of these transactions, and among the rest, Zarata, say that Francisco Pizarro had at that time sailed for Europe to carry Charles V. a part of the treasures taken from Atahaulpa, and that d’Al- magro alone was guilty of this barbarity. The bishop of Chiapa, whom we mentioned in the fore¬ going chapter, adds that they put several of the king’s generals to the same cruel death; and that these by a generosity as great as the conqueror’s barbarity, chose rather to accept of death than dis¬ cover their master’s treasure.

However, by the ransom already obtained from Atahaulpa, each Spanish horseman had two hundred and forty marks in pure gold ; each foot soldier one

Conquest of Peru. 223

hundred and sixty, and they divided about ten times as much silver in the same proportion; so that a horseman had about one-third more than a foot soldier. The officers got immense riches, and, in 1534, there were sent over to Charles V. thirty thou¬ sand marks in silver, three thousand in fine gold unwrought, and twenty thousand marks weight of silver, and two thousand of gold, in the workman¬ ship of the country. America might have supplied him with sufficient riches to have kept one part of Europe in subjection, especially the popes, who had granted him the investiture of this new world, had he had frequent remittances of this value.

It is difficult to say whether we should most admire the persevering courage of those who dis¬ covered and conquered so many countries, or detest their barbarity; the same principle, avarice, was productive of all the good and all the evil. Diego d’Almagro marched to Cuzco, through multitudes, whom his very presence dispersed, and penetrated as far as Chili, on the other side of the Tropic of Capri¬ corn. He took possession of all the places he passed through, in the name of Charles V. But it was not long before discord arose between these conquerors, as it had before done between Velasquez and Cortes, in North America.

D’Almagro and Pizarro engaged in a civil war against each other, even in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca’s empire. The recruits they had received from Europe divided themselves into different parties, and

224 Ancient and Modern History.

fought for the chief of their own election. A bloody battle was fought under the walls of Cuzco, while the Peruvians, who stood as idle spectators, had not the courage to take advantage of the weakness of their common enemy ; nay, there were some of them in each army who fought for their tyrants, and the rest stood in brutal stupidity waiting to know which party of their destroyers they were to pay submission to ; and yet neither army of the Spaniards consisted of above three hundred men ; so great a superiority has nature given the Europeans over the inhabitants of the new world. At length d’Almagro was made prisoner, and beheaded, by order of his rival Pizarro, who was soon afterward assassinated himself, by some of d’Almagro’s friends.

The Spanish government was now established throughout the new world. Governors were ap¬ pointed to the great provinces, and courts for trying causes like those of our parliaments at Paris. Arch¬ bishops, bishops, the officers of the Inquisition, and all the other members of church government exer¬ cised their functions the same as at Madrid, when the captains, who had conquered Peru for Charles V., now made an attempt to seize this empire for them¬ selves. One of d’Almagro’s sons got himself pro¬ claimed king of Peru ; but the rest of the Spaniards choosing to obey their master in Europe rather than to be subject to a king who was only one of their companions, seized upon this new monarch, and gave him up to die by the hands of the executioner.

Conquest of Peru. 225

A brother of Pizarro’s, whose ambition prompted him to a scheme of the same nature, met with a sim¬ ilar fate. These rebellions against Charles V. were raised by his own Spaniards, and not by the con¬ quered natives.

In the midst of these civil broils, and mutual battles, the conquerors discovered the rich mines of Potosi, which were unknown to the Peruvians themselves. It is not exaggeration to say that the earth in this part of the kingdom was almost all silver ; and it is far from exhausted even to this day. The Peruvians were employed by the Spaniards in working these mines, as if the latter had been the lawful proprietors. Soon afterward they reinforced these slaves with a number of negroes, whom they purchased on the coast of Africa, and transported to Peru, like animals destined for the service of men.

In fact, they treated neither these negroes nor the inhabitants of the new world like human creatures. Las Casas, a Dominican friar, and bishop of Chiapa, whom we have had occasion to quote more than once, moved with compassion at the sufferings of these poor wretches, had the courage to complain to Charles V. and Philip II. of the cruelties exercised upon them by his countrymen, in a memorial, which is still extant. He there represents the Americans in general as a mild and timorous people, whose faint¬ heartedness naturally makes them slaves to others. He says that the Spaniards considered this timorous disposition only as a means of more effectually Vol. 27—15

226 Ancient and Modern History.

destroying them; and that in Cuba and Jamaica, and the neighboring islands, they murdered more than twelve hundred thousand of their fellow crea¬ tures, as hunters would beasts of prey whom they were endeavoring to root out of a forest. “ I have known them,” said he, “ in the islands of San Domingo and Jamaica, to erect gibbets all over the country, upon every one of which they hanged thir¬ teen of these poor wretches at a time, in honor, as they pretended, of the thirteen apostles. I have also seen them,” continues he, “ throw young children to dogs to be devoured alive.”

A cacique of the island of Cuba, named Hatacu, who was condemned to be burned for not having brought in a sufficient quantity of gold, was deliv¬ ered over to a Franciscan friar before he was carried to execution, who endeavored to prevail on him to die in the Christian faith, and promised him heaven as a reward. “And do the Spaniards go to heaven too ? ” hastily demanded the cacique. “ Doubtless,” replied the monk. “ Oh then,” rejoined he, “ do not let me go there.” A cacique of New Granada, which lies between Peru and Mexico, was publicly burned for failing in a promise he had made to one of their captains, to fill his room with gold.

Thousands of these Americans were made use of by the Spaniards as beasts of burden, who knocked them on the head when they could travel no farther. In short, this bishop, who was eye-witness to all these barbarities, declares that in the islands and on the

First Voyage Round the World. 227

mainland above twelve millions of Americans had been put to death by this inconsiderable number of Spaniards. “And as an excuse for this,” says he, “ you allege that they deserve death for being guilty of sacrificing human victims ; and you instance the temple of Mexico, in which you say that they had sacrificed above twenty thousand prisoners. Now I take heaven and earth to witness, that the Mexi¬ cans, in the utmost use they made of this barbarous right of war, never put one hundred and fifty men to death in that temple.”

From the several passages I have here quoted, it follows, that in all probability the Spaniards had greatly exaggerated the depraved customs of the Mexicans ; and that the bishop of Chiapa has some¬ times exceeded in his complaints of his country¬ men. But the representations of this humane pre¬ late had their due effect. The orders sent over from Europe have somewhat alleviated the hard fate of the Americans, who are now only considered as subjects, and not treated like slaves.

CHAPTER CXXVI.

THE FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.

This mixture of greatness and cruelty fills us with surprise and indignation. The glorious actions of the conquerors of America are sullied with too many horrors ; but the fame of Columbus appears pure and unstained. Similar to his was the reputation of

228 Ancient and Modern History.

Magalhaens, or Magellan, as he is commonly called, who undertook the tour of the globe by sea ; and of Sebastian Cabot, who was the first who completed this amazing voyage, which is now no longer regarded as anything wonderful.

It was in 1519, at the beginning of the Spanish conquests in America, and in the midst of the great successes of the Portuguese in Asia and Africa, that Magellan discovered the straits which bear his name. He was the first who entered the South Seas, and sailing from west to east, found the Mariana Islands, and one of the Philippine Islands, where he lost his life. This Magellan was a Portuguese by birth ; and having been denied an increase of six crowns in his pay, he was so incensed at this refusal that he deter¬ mined to enter into the Spanish service, and endeavor to discover a passage along the coast of America, which might open a way for sharing part of the Portuguese possessions in Asia. Accordingly, his companions after his death settled themselves in Tidore, the chief of the Molucca Islands, which pro¬ duces the most valuable spices.

The Portuguese were astonished when they found the Spaniards there, and could not comprehend how they had come thither through the eastern seas, when their own ships had no other way of coming from Portugal but by the western ocean. They never suspected that the Spaniards had made the tour of one part of the globe. It now required a new system of geography to settle the differences

First Voyage Round the World. 229

between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, and make an improvement on the decree which had been passed by the court of Rome with relation to the pretensions of the nations, and the limits of their respective discoveries.

It is necessary to understand that when the famous Prince Henry of Portugal first began to enlarge the bounds of the universe for the Europeans, the Por¬ tuguese demanded from the popes a grant for the possession of all those countries they should dis¬ cover. It had been a custom to ask the possession of kingdoms from the see of Rome, ever since Pope Gregory VII. had first assumed the right of bestow¬ ing them ; and this was thought necessary, in order to guard against any foreign encroachments, by making the Church a party concerned in all new settlements. Accordingly several popes had con¬ firmed the Portuguese in the rights which they had acquired, and of which the pontiffs were not able to deprive them.

When the Spaniards began to settle themselves in America, Pope Adrian VI. divided the newly dis¬ covered worlds of Asia and America into two parts : all that lay to the eastward of the Azores was to belong to the Portuguese, and the Spaniards were to have all to the westward : a line was then drawn upon the globe, which fixed the limits of their respective claims, and this was called the line of par¬ tition. But this voyage of Magellan’s had occasioned a confusion in the pope’s line, as the Mariana, Philip-

230 Ancient and Modern History.

pine, and Molucca islands were found to be to the eastward of the Portuguese discoveries. It was nec¬ essary, therefore, to trace a new line, which was called the line of departition.

All these lines were again broken through when the Portuguese landed in the Brazils, and were no longer respected by the French or English, who formed settlements in North America. It is true that they had only the gleanings after the rich harvests reaped by the Spaniards ; but they have since formed very considerable settlements there.

The fatal consequences of all these discoveries and transplantations have been that our trading nations have gone to war in America and Asia whenever they have had any disputes in Europe, by which means they have mutually destroyed their rising colonies. The first voyages were undertaken with a view to unite all nations; the latter ones have been made only to destroy us in the farthest extremities of the globe.

It is difficult to determine if Europe has been a gainer by its settlements in America. It is certain that the Spaniards drew immense riches from there, but then Spain was depopulated; and these treas¬ ures being divided at last among all the other nations of Europe, restored that equality which they had before destroyed. The price of commodities has been everywhere raised, so that in fact no side has been really the gainer. It remains, therefore, to know, whether the cochineal and Peruvian bark are

State of Asia, Etc. 23 1

of sufficient value to compensate for the loss of so many lives.

CHAPTER CXXVIL

ASIA AT THE TIME OF THE DISCOVERIES MADE BY THE PORTUGUESE - CHINA.

vVhile Spain was enjoying- her acquisitions in America ; while the Portuguese reigned masters on the coast of Africa and Asia ; while the trade of Europe put on so new a face, and the great revolu¬ tion in the Christian religion made a change in the interests of so many kings, let us take a view of the state of the rest of the old world at that time.

At the end of the thirteenth century we left the race of Genghis Khan in possession of the sover¬ eignties of China, India, and Persia, and the Tartars carrying destruction into the heart of Poland and Hungary. The branch of this victorious family which reigned in China was called Yuen. We find no resemblance in this name with that of Ogdai, or Kublai Khan, his brother, whose race continued on the throne for one whole century. These conquerors, when they took a Chinese name, adopted the manners of the Chinese. All usurpers are desirous of preserv¬ ing by law what they have acquired by force. Were it not for this natural inclination which everyone has to enjoy in peace what he has acquired by depre¬ dations, there would be no society in the world. The Tartars found the laws of the people they had con-

Ancient and Modern History.

quered so excellent that they voluntarily submitted to them as the surest means of establishing their authority. Among other laws they were particularly careful to preserve that which ordains that no person shall be a governor or judge in the province where he was born ; a most admirable regulation, and which particularly suited the conquerors.

That ancient principle in morality and politics which makes parents regarded by their children, and the emperor considered as the common father of his people, soon brought the Chinese to pay a voluntary obedience to their new rulers ; and the second gen¬ eration forgot how the blood of the first had been shed. There were nine successive emperors of the same Tartar race, without any mention being made in the Chinese annals of the least endeavor to expel these strangers. One of the great-grandsons of Genghis Khan was assassinated in his palace: but it was by a Tartar; and his son succeeded him on the throne without the least disturbance.

At length, what had proved the ruin of the caliphs, and had formerly deprived the kings of Persia and Assyria of their crowns, occasioned the downfall of these conquerors. They sank into effeminacy. The ninth emperor of the race of Genghis Khan having given himself up to the women and lamas, by whom he was surrounded, and who governed him by turns, fell into universal contempt, and the people reas¬ sumed their native courage. The bonzes, who were enemies to the lamas, began the revolution. A bold

233

State of Asia, Etc.

adventurer, who had formerly been a servant in one of the convents belonging to the bonzes, having put iiimself at the head of a band of freebooters, was by them declared chief of those whom the court called the rebels. We meet with twenty examples of this kind in the Roman and Greek empires, espe¬ cially the latter. The world is a vast theatre, where the same tragedy is frequently acted under differ¬ ent names.

This adventurer drove the Tartar race from the throne in 1357, and began the twenty-first family, or dynasty of Chinese emperors, called Ming. This dynasty reigned two hundred and seventy-six years ; but at length it fell beneath the descendants of those very Tartars which it had expelled from the throne. It has always necessarily happened that the most learned, rich, and civilized nations have, in the course of time, been obliged almost everywhere to yield to a savage, poor, and hardy people. Artillery alone, since it has been carried to perfection, has at length been able to put the weak upon a footing with the strong. We have already observed that the Chi¬ nese were not acquainted with the use of cannon, notwithstanding that gunpowder had been so long known among them.

The restorer of the Chinese Empire took the name of Hung-woo, a name which he afterward rendered famous by the power of his arms, and the wisdom of his laws. The first thing he did was to suppress the power of the bonzes, whom he knew the better, as

234 Ancient and Modern History.

they had assisted him in mounting the throne. He ordered that no Chinese should take upon him the profession of a bonze till he was forty years old, and made the same regulation with regard to the female bonzes. The same has been done in our time by Czar Peter the Great in Russia : but that invincible love which everyone bears to his profession, and that spirit which animates all large bodies, has made the Chinese bonzes and the Russian monks triumph over this wise law ; it has ever been much easier in all countries to suppress a bad custom entirely than to keep it within bounds.

Hung-woo, this second founder of China, seems to have considered propagation as the first of all duties ; for at the same time that he lessened the number of bonzes, the greater part of whom led a single life, he took care to exclude eunuchs from all employ¬ ments in the state, who before were wont to govern the royal palace, and who by their examples had enervated the nation.

Though the race of Genghis Khan had been driven out of China, yet those ancient conquerors still con¬ tinued to be very formidable. A Chinese emperor named Ching-Tung was made prisoner by them, and carried into Tartary, in the year 1444, where he was detained till the Chinese Empire paid an immense sum for his ransom. The prince, though restored to his liberty, did not recover his crown, but waited peaceably for the death of his brother, who reigned during his captivity, and then remounted the throne.

State of Asia, Etc. 235

The internal peace of the kingdom was now estab¬ lished, and history mentions only one commotion, raised by a bonze, who endeavored to stir up the peo¬ ple to revolt, for which he lost his head.

There was no change in the religion of the emperor and the learned men : it was only forbidden to pay the same honors to Confucius as were paid to the memory of the kings : a shameful prohibition, because no one king had ever done the country so much service as Confucius ; but at the same time it serves to show that Confucius was never worshipped in China, and that idolatry has no part in the cere¬ monies with which the Chinese honor the names of their ancestors and great men.

A strange notion prevailed at that time among the Chinese. They thought that there was a secret for making men immortal. The mountebanks, who resembled our alchemists, boasted of their power of composing a certain liquor which they called “the drink of immortality.” This gave rise to a thousand fables which spread all over Asia, and which have been mistaken for history. It is pretended that several of the Chinese emperors expended immense sums upon this recipe; which is just as true as if the Asiatics were to believe that our kings in Europe have seriously sought after the fountain of youth, which is as famous in our old French romances as the drink of immortality in the eastern tales.

Under the dynasty of Yuen, that is to say, the pos¬ terity of Genghis Khan, and under that of the

236 Ancient and Modern History.

restorer of the ancient empire called Ming, the arts of genius and invention were particularly cultivated ; and yet we find in their little romances the plan which is so pleasing to all nations; unforeseen calamities, unexpected good fortune, and surprising discoveries. They have but little of that incredible marvellous which is found in the metamorphoses invented by the Greeks, and embellished by Ovid, in the “Arabian Tales,” and the fables of Bayardo and Ariosto. The invention of the Chinese fables seldom departs from probability, and always tends to the inculcating of sound morality.

A passion for theatrical exhibitions became very prevalent among the Chinese after the fourteenth century, and still continues to be so. They cannot have received this art from an)'- other nation. They were ignorant that such a kingdom as Greece had ever existed; and neither the Mahometans nor the Tartars could have communicated any of the works of the Greeks to them. They therefore must have invented the art, such as they have it, themselves ; but from a Chinese tragedy, which has been lately translated, we may perceive that they have not car¬ ried this art to any great perfection. This tragedy, which is entitled “The Orphan of Tchao,” was written in the fourteenth century, and is given us as one of their very best. It is true, that the drama was at that time still more rude with us in Europe, where the art itself was hardly known. But it is our character to improve and carry to perfection, and

State of Asia, Etc. 237

that of the Chinese to remain at a certain point. Perhaps this tragedy may be in the taste of some of the first trials made by dEschylus. The Chinese, who have always been the foremost in ethics, have made but little progress in the other sciences ; doubtless because nature, who has given them wisdom and rectitude of mind, has denied them the gift of supe¬ rior genius.

In general they write as they paint, without know¬ ing the secret of the art. Their pictures are void of proportion, perspective, or chiaroscuro ; and their writings betray an equal poverty of invention. But in all their productions there seems to reign a prudent mediocrity and unaffected truth, which does not in the least resemble the bombastic style so common with other Oriental writers. In their treatises of morality you meet with no extravagant similes nor far-fetched metaphors. They never speak in rid¬ dles, and in this respect they differ from all the rest of the Asiatics. It is not long since you read the reflections of a wise Chinese on the method of acquir¬ ing the small portion of happiness of which man’s nature is susceptible. You must have remarked that these reflections are exactly the same as those we find in most of our books. The theory of physic is still with them all darkness and error: and yet the Chinese physicians are fairly successful m their prac¬ tice. Nature has not suffered the lives of men to depend altogether upon the perfect knowledge of this art. The Greeks knew how to bleed on proper occa-

238 Ancient and Modern History.

sions, though they understood nothing of the circula¬ tion of the blood. Experience and good medicines have established the practice of physic all over the world; it is at best but a conjectural art, which sometimes assists nature, and sometimes destroys her.

In general, a spirit of decency and moderation, a taste for the sciences, and the cultivation of the nec¬ essary arts, together with a great fertility of inven¬ tion, which renders the attainment of these arts more easy, composed the Chinese wisdom. By this wis¬ dom they civilized their Tartarian conquerors, and incorporated them with themselves. This is an advantage which the Greeks could never gain over the Turks. In short, the Chinese drove their masters out of the kingdom, whereas the Greeks never once entertained a thought of throwing off the yoke of their conquerors.

When we speak of the wisdom which for more than four thousand years distinguished the constitu¬ tion of China, we do not mean to include the pop¬ ulace, as they are in all countries destined wholly to the purposes of labor. The spirit of a nation resides in the few who set the multitude to work, and who support and govern them. Certainly this spirit in the Chinese nation is the most ancient monu¬ ment of reason in the world.

This government, excellent as it was, could not avoid being infected with many errors, which are inseparable from human institutions, especially in a

The Tartars.

239

great empire. The principal of these was the cus¬ tom of poor people exposing their children at their birth, in hopes of their being taken up by the rich. By this inhuman practice the state lost many sub¬ jects; but the vast number of people in China pre¬ vented the government from perceiving this loss. Men were considered by them like the fruits of trees, which are suffered to fall to the ground, and perish unheeded, so long as a sufficient quantity remains behind for use. The Tartarian conquerors might have provided for these abandoned children, and have sent them to people colonies in the deserts of Tartary ; but this escaped their attention ; and in our western parts, where the human species stood so much in need of being recruited, we had not at that time hit upon any expedient to remedy this evil, though so evidently detrimental to us. It is only of late years that there has been a hospital in Lon¬ don for the relief and maintenance of deserted chil¬ dren. Human society takes a long time in coming to perfection.

CHAPTER CXXVIII.

THE TARTARS.

As the Chinese, though twice subdued, first by Gen¬ ghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, and again in the seventeenth, still continued the principal people of Asia, with regard to arts and laws, so did the Tartars in arms.

240 Ancient and Modern History.

It is a mortifying consideration to human nature, that strength has always prevailed over wisdom, and that almost all our hemisphere, as far as Mount Atlas, has been subdued by barbarians. The Roman Empire was destroyed by them in the fifth century; and they conquered Spain, with all that the Romans were possessed of in Africa. We have seen them afterward subjecting the Babylonian caliphs.

Mahmoud, who toward the end of the tenth cen¬ tury conquered Persia and India, was a Tartar. He is hardly known at present to the nations of the West, but by the reproof he received from a poor woman who applied to him, when in India, for jus¬ tice on certain robbers who had stripped and mur¬ dered her son, in the province of Irac in Persia.

How would you have me do you justice at such a distance ? ” said the sultan. “ To what end then did you conquer,” replied the mother, “ if you are not able to govern us ? ”

It was from the farther end of Tartary that Genghis Khan set out at the end of the twelfth century on his conquest of India, China, Persia, and Russia. Batou Ivhan, one of his sons, carried his incursions as far as the frontiers of Germany. At present the vast empire, which was the portion of this Batou Khan, is reduced to the single province of Crimea, which is held by his descendants under the protection of the Turks.

Tamerlane, who subdued so large a part of Asia,

The Tartars.

241

was also a Tartar, and even a descendant of the family of Genghis Khan.

Ussum Cassan, who reigned in Persia, was also a native of Tartary.

In short, if you look into the origin of the Otto¬ man power, you will find that these people set out from the eastern borders of the Caspian Sea, and spread their conquests over Asia Minor, Arabia, Egypt, Constantinople, and Greece.

Let us now see what remained in the vast deserts of Tartary in the sixteenth century, after it had sent forth so many conquerors. To the northward of China were those same Mogul and Manchoo Tar¬ tars, who conquered it under Genghis, and who reduced it again about a century ago. They were at that time of the religion which has the Dalai Lama for its head in Lesser Thibet. Their deserts bor¬ dered on those of Russia. From there to the Caspian Sea, the country was inhabited by the Elhuts, Cal- cats, Kalmucks, and a hundred other tribes of wan¬ dering Tartars. The Usbegs were, and still are set¬ tled in the country of Samarkand. They are all very poor, and only known from the fact that their coun¬ try sent forth those emigrations, who conquered the

richest countries of the globe.

Vol. 27 — 16

24-

Ancient and Modern History.

CHAPTER CXXIX.

THE MOGUL.

The race of Tamerlane reigned in Mogulstan. This kingdom of India had not been entirely subdued by Tamerlane. His children made war upon one another for the division of his dominions, as the successors of Alexander had done, and by their disputes made all India unhappy. This country, where the nature of the climate inspires weakness and effeminacy, was unable to make head against the posterity of its conquerors. Sultan Babar, great-grandson of Tamer¬ lane, made himself absolute master of all the country from Samarkand as far as Agra.

There were at that time four principal nations established in India: the Mahometan Arabs, named Patanes, who had been in possession of several ter¬ ritories ever since the tenth century; the ancient Parsis or Guebers, who had taken refuge there in the time of Omar; the Tartars of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane ; and lastly the native Indians, who were divided into several castes or tribes.

The Patanes, or Mahometan Arabs, were always the most powerful of these nations, since in the year 1120, we find that a Mussulman, named Chircha, dispossessed Sultan Humayun, son of Babar, and obliged him to take shelter in Persia. Solyman, the natural enemy of the Persians, protected the Mahom¬ etan usurper against the offspring of the Tartarian usurpers, who were assisted by the Persians. This

'243

The Mogul.

Solyman at that time held the balance of power in India, and as long as he lived, Chircha reigned without interruption. It was he who made Mahom¬ etanism the prevailing religion in the Mogul Empire. There are still remaining several noble roads lined with trees on each side, and caravansaries and baths, which were erected by him for the convenience of travellers.

Humayun could not get footing in India till after the deaths of Solyman and Chircha, when he was reinstated on his throne by an army of Persians. Thus have the Indians been always subdued by foreigners.

The petty kingdom of Gujrat, near Surat, still con¬ tinued subject to the ancient Indian Arabs, and was almost all that these conquerors retained of the many kingdoms they had subdued, from Persia to the southern provinces of France. They were now obliged to implore the assistance of the Portuguese against Akbar, the son of Humayun ; but the Portu¬ guese could not prevent their fall.

There was also in Agra a prince who called him¬ self a descendant of that Por, whom Quintus Curtius has rendered so famous under the name of Porus. This prince was subdued by Akbar, who would not afterward restore him his kingdom. But he did more good in India than Alexander had time to do : he was the contriver of several immense undertak¬ ings ; and we to this day admire the great road, planted on each side with trees, and reaching the

244 Ancient and Modern History.

length of one hundred and fifty leagues, from Agra to Lahore, which was the work of this conqueror, and was afterward embellished by his son Jahangin.

The Indus peninsula, on this side the Ganges, was then in a manner unknown, or if any part of it had been conquered, it was by the Portuguese. The viceroy of this nation, who resided at Goa, equalled the mogul himself in magnificence and luxury, and far surpassed him in the strength of his maritime forces. He had the disposal of five governments — namely, Mozambique, Malacca, Mascata, Ormuz, and Ceylon. The Portuguese were masters of the vast trade of Surat, and the great mogul’s people came every year to purchase from them valuable commodities. America itself, for the forty years it belonged to the Spaniards had not brought them in more riches; and when Philip II. made himself master of Portugal, in 1580, he found himself in an instant master of the chief riches of both worlds, without having himself had any part in their dis¬ covery. The grand mogul was not at that time to compare in riches and grandeur with the Spanish monarch.

We are not so well acquainted with this empire as with that of China, on account of the frequent revo¬ lutions it has undergone since Tamerlane’s time, and because those who have been sent to make observa¬ tions there have not been so accurate as those who first transmitted to us an account of China.

The accounts we have had of India are full of con-

The Mogul. 245

tradictions. Father Catrou tells us : “ The mogul keeps to himself the sole property of all the lands in the empire ; ” and in the same page he says : “ The children of the rajas, or chief princes of the country, succeed to their father’s lands.” Ip one place he affirms : “All the grandees are slaves,” and in another he says, “ Several of these slaves have between twenty and thirty thousand soldiers under their command ; ” “ The mogul’s will is the only law of the empire;” and yet, “no encroachment has been made upon the rights of the people.” It is difficult to reconcile these notions.

Tavernier writes more for the merchant than the philosopher ; for he gives instructions only for find¬ ing- the high road, and purchasing diamonds.

Bernier is a philosopher ; but he does not employ his philosophy in making himself acquainted with the basis of the government. He says, like other writers, that all the lands belong to the emperor. This wants an explanation ; to bestow lands and to possess them are two things absolutely different. The kings of Europe bestow church-livings, but they do not enjoy them; and though the emperor of Germany had a right of conferring all fiefs in Ger¬ many and Italy, which become vacant in default of heirs, he does not receive the profits arising from those lands.

Bernier never imagined that people could so far mistake his expressions, as to think that all the inhabitants of India labored; sowed, built, and

246 Ancient and Modern History.

worked for one single Tartar. Besides, this Tartar, though absolute over the subjects of his own demesnes, has very little authority over the viceroys, who are frequently powerful enough to dispute his commands.

“ In India,” says Bernier, “ there are only princes and slaves.” How are we to reconcile this with the opulence of some of their merchants, who, we are told by Tavernier, are worth several millions?

Be that as it may, the Indians were no longer that superior people among whom the ancient Greeks travelled in search of knowledge. Nothing remained of all their former superiority but superstition, which grew stronger as they were more subjected; as was the case with the Egyptians after they were con¬ quered by the Romans.

The waters of the Ganges had in all times been famous for their supposed virtue of purifying souls. The ancient custom of plunging into that river at the instant of eclipse cannot yet be abolished; and though several of the Indian astronomers knew how to calculate these phenomena, the people could not be persuaded but that the sun at that time was in the claws of a great dragon, from which there was no way of delivering it, but by plunging themselves quite naked into the water, and making a loud noise, which frightened the dragon, and made him loose his hold.

The school of the old Gymnosophists was still pre¬ served in the great city of Benares, on the borders

247

The Mogul.

of the Ganges. Here the Brahmins cultivated the holy language called Sanskrit, which is looked upon as the most ancient in the East. They hold the belief of Genii, like the first Persians ; they teach their disciples that the design of idols is only to fix the attention of the common people, and that they are no more than different emblems of the one God ; but they carefully conceal this wise doctrine from the vulgar, to whom it could be of no service, and suffer them to continue in errors which are beneficial to them.

It would seem that the heat of the southern cli¬ mates disposed men more to superstition and enthu¬ siasm than elsewhere. Numbers of the bigoted Indians have been known to throw themselves under the chariot wheels of. their idol, Juggernaut, to have their bodies crushed, out of devotion. The supersti¬ tion of the people easily reconciled every kind of contradiction ; at the same time that the priests of Juggernaut were wont every year to conduct a beau¬ tiful virgin to the temple of their god, to be honored with the title of his wife, as the Egyptians formerly presented one to their god, Anubis 1 ; they led young

1 The god Anubis of the Egyptians was supposed to be the same as the Mercury of other nations, hence Eusebius calls him Hermanubis. He was exhibited with a dog’s head as an emblem of vigilance; and in the city of Cynapolis, consecrated to this divinity, sacred dogs were maintained. Anubis was held in such veneration among the Romans that his worship was allowed in Rome, and the emperors, as well as private persons, often appeared in the disguise of this

248 Ancient and Modern History.

widows to the funeral pile, who went singing and dancing to throw themselves into the flames with the bodies of their dead husbands.

We are told, that in the year 1642, one of the rajas having been assassinated in the court of Cha-gehan, thirteen of his wives threw themselves alive upon their lord’s funeral-pile. Numerous facts of this nature convince us that this custom was in full force in the mogul’s empire, as it still is throughout the whole peninsula, as far as Cape Comorin. It may seem surprising that this sex, by nature so timid, should be capable of such desperate resolution ; but superstition gives a supernatural degree of strength to all ranks.

deity. In an ancient medal of Marcus Aurelius and Faus¬ tina, the emperor is represented under the form of Anubis, and Faustina in the character of Isis. T. he following story is recorded by Tacitus: Mundus, a Roman patrician, being passionately enamored of Paulina, the wife of Saturninus, and being rejected in his addresses to that matron, resolved to make away with himself, but was diverted from this reso¬ lution by his freedman, who undertook to satisfy his desire. For this purpose he bribed some of the priests of Isis to declare to Paulina that she was a favorite of the god Anu¬ bis, who desired to possess her person. Proud of this hon¬ ored distinction, she communicated the intimation to her husband, and, with his consent, passed the night in the tem¬ ple with the pretended Anubis. In the sequel, when Mundus disclosed the secret to her, she, in despair, conjured her husband to avenge the injury. He preferred a complaint to the emperor Tiberius, who, after due inquiry, ordered the corrupted priests to be crucified, the temple to be demol¬ ished, and the statues of Isis and Anubis to be thrown into the Tiber.

Persia — Manners and Customs.

249

CHAPTER CXXX.

PERSIA AND ITS REVOLUTIONS, IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY - ITS CUSTOMS, MANNERS, ETC.

Persia about this time experienced a revolution nearly of the same kind as that which the change of religion had occasioned in Europe.

A Persian, named Haidar,1 who is known to us only by the title of “ Sufi,” that is to say, “ the Wise,” and who, besides his wisdom, possessed consider¬ able territory, toward the end of the fifteenth century founded the sect by which the Persians are at pres¬ ent separated from the Turks.

During the reign of the Tartar Ussum Hassan, a part of Persia, pleased with an opportunity of oppos¬ ing a new worship to that of the Turks, of setting

1 Haidar in Arabic signifies a lion, and was one of the surnames or titles of Ali. This Haidar, of whom our author speaks, was, or pretended to be, descended from Ali, by the branch of his second son, Houssain, which, according to the Persians, is of the branch of the Imans. Haidar’s mother was daughter of Usum Hassan, the first sultan of the dynasty of the Turcomans, called Brandurcans, or of the white sheep. By this sultan, Haidar was supplied with forces to attack Feroxhzad, king of Schirvan, who had defeated and slain his father, Gruncid, in battle ; but in attempting to avenge the death of a parent, he lost his own life, and the greater part of his numerous family was cut off : neverthe¬ less, Ismail, one of his sons, escaped, and afterward, under the name of Sophi, founded the dynasty and reigning house in Persia.

250 Ancient and Modern History.

up Ali 1 above Omar,2 and of having another place besides Mecca to go to upon pilgrimages, greedily embraced the Sufi’s doctrine, the seeds of which

1 Ali, the son of Abou Thaleb, was the relative, son-in- law, and favorite of Mahomet, whom he likewise succeeded as the fourth caliph. It is very remarkable that although his name is now at the head of a very numerous sect, there was nothing which he himself so much condemned as a schism from the established religion of Islamism. The fol¬ lowing is one of his maxims, which we find in d’Herbelot :

Take heed you never separate from the communion of the other Mussulmans; for he who separates from it, belongs to the devil, as a sheep that quits the flock belongs to the w°lf, £'ve no Quarter, therefore, to him who marches under the standard of schism, even should he be covered with my turban, for he bears the infallible marks of perdition.” By the bye, the sectaries of Ali not only wear a turban of a particular form, but thdir hair is dressed in a different man¬ ner from that of the other Mahometans. These sectaries believe that Ali was the first who embraced Mussulmanism, and even professed it while yet in his mother’s belly: they go so far as to say he hindered her during her whole preg¬ nancy from worshipping and prostrating herself before her idol. They never mention Ali but with this benediction :

God make his fate glorious.” They affirm that the prophet, speaking of Ali, declared : “Ali is for me, and I am for him. He bears the same rank with me as Aaron did with Moses.

I am the city in which all science is locked up, and Ali is the key.”

Omar Ben Alkhetab succeeded Abubeker as second caliph of the Mussulmans, and was remarkable for his jus¬ tice humility, piety, and liberality. During his caliphate the Arabians subdued Syria, Chaldaea, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Egypt. They reduced thirty-six thousand towns or castles, destroyed four thousand churches or temples of Christians or heathens, and built fourteen hundred mosques for the exercise of their own religion.

25I

Persia — Manners and Customs.

had been sown for some time, which he now fully improved, and gave a form to that political and relig¬ ious schism, which at present appears so necessary between two great neighboring nations who are jeal¬ ous of each other. Neither the Turks nor the Persians had any reason to acknowledge Omar or Ali, as the lawful successor of Mahomet. The rights of those Arabians, whom they had driven from among them, could not affect them in any manner ; but the Persians thought it concerned them not to have the seat of their religion fixed with Turks.

The Sufi then published his tenets, for the interest of Persia, but at the same time he had an eye to his own, and soon became so powerful that Shah Rus¬ tam, the usurper of Persia, began to stand in fear of him. At length this reformer met that fate which Luther and Calvin escaped : he was assassinated by Rustam’s orders, in 1499.

Ismail, the son of this Sufi, had courage and power sufficient to maintain his father’s opinion by force of arms ; and his disciples became soldiers.

He converted and conquered the kingdom of Armenia, which was so famous in the time of Tigra- nes, though of so little consideration at present, and in which hardly the ruins of the great city of Tigranocerta are now to be seen. The country is poor; and here are great numbers of Greek Chris¬ tians, who live by the traffic they carry on in Persia and other places of Asia; but we are not to give credit to those tales which tell us that this province

252 Ancient and Modern History.

sustains one million five hundred thousand Christian families, which, together with the other inhabitants, would make between five and six millions of souls ; whereas there is not one-third of the number in the whole country. Ismail, after having made himself master of Armenia, subdued all Persia, and pushed his conquests as far as the country of the Samarkand Tartars. He fought a battle against the Turkish sultan, Selim I., in which he gained the advantage ; and when he died, left his son Thamasp in the quiet possession of the powerful empire of Persia.

It was this same Thamasp who at length repulsed Solyman, after having nearly lost his crown. His descendants continued to reign quietly in Persia, till the revolutions which have of late years laid waste that empire.

Toward the end of the sixteenth century, and under the reign of the renowned Shah Abbas, great- grandson of Ismail, Persia became one of the most flourishing and happy countries in the world. All places have had a time of glory and splendor, after which they have fallen into decay.

The customs, manners, and spirit of the Persian nation appear as strange to us as those of almost any people we have yet noticed. Chardin, the trav¬ eller, says that the emperor of Persia is not so abso¬ lute as the emperor of the Turks ; but the Sufi does not appear to be in the power of a militia, which the grand seignior undoubtedly is. Chardin, however, admits that the lands in Persia are not all in the

Persia — Manners and Customs. 253

hands of one man; that the subjects enjoy the pos¬ sessions that belong to them, and pay only a mod¬ erate tax to the state, not exceeding the value of a crown a year. There are neither great nor small feu¬ dal tenures, as there are in India and Turkey, which were conquered by the Tartars. Ismail, the restorer of this empire, who was not a Tartar, but an Arme¬ nian, followed the natural law established in his country, and not that of conquest and plunder.

The seraglio of Ispahan was likewise generally esteemed less cruel than that of Constantinople. A jealousy of state had frequently led the Turkish sultans to strangle their nearest relatives. The Sufis only deprived the princes of the blood of their sight. In China it was never considered necessary for the security of the throne, to deprive the brothers or cousins of the reigning prince of their life or sight; they were always suffered to enjoy dignities, though without authority ; all which proves that the Chinese were infinitely more prudent and humane in their manners than any of the other orientals.

The kings of Persia have preserved the custom of receiving presents from their subjects. This is an established practice in Turkey and the mogul’s empire. It was so formerly in Poland, which indeed was the only kingdom where it seemed to be reason¬ able; for the kings of Poland, having but a very small revenue, stood in need of such helps. But the grand mogul and grand seignior, especially the lat¬ ter, who were masters of immense treasures, should

254 Ancient and Modern History.

never show themselves without bestowing gifts. It is debasing their dignity to accept them, and yet upon this very debasement they found their title of grandeur. The emperors of China never thus dis¬ graced their dignity. Chardin pretends that the gifts made the king of Persia by his subjects were worth between five and six millions of our money.

Persia has always had this in common with China and Turkey; it admits of no nobility. There is no nobility in all these vast dominions but what is conferred by employments ; and men who are nothing themselves cannot there derive any advan¬ tage from what their ancestors have been.

In Persia, as well as throughout all Asia, justice has always been administered in the most expeditious manner. Lawyers and lawsuits are not known there ; everyone pleads his own cause ; and the maxim that a short injustice is more supportable than a tedious and intricate justice has ever prevailed with these people, who were civilized long before us, and have experienced less refinements of all kinds than we have done.

The Mahometanism of Ali was the established religion of Persia, but it permitted the free exercise of all others. There were still in Ispahan a few remains of the ancient Persian fire-worshippers, who were not driven from that kingdom till the reign of Abbas. This sect was scattered over all the fron¬ tiers, and particularly in ancient Assyria, a district of Upper Armenia, where their high priest still

Persia — Manners and Customs. 255

resides. There were also several families of the ten tribes and a half of Samaritan Jews, which had been transported thither by Shalmaneser in the time of Hosea ; and at the period of which I am now speaking, there were nearly ten thousand families of the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, who had been brought thither from Jerusalem with their king Zedekiah, by Nebuchadnezzar, and had not returned with Ezra and Nehemiah.

About the Persian Gulf there were several Sabe- ans, disciples of John the Baptist, of whom I have already spoken. The Armenian Christians, who adhered to the Greek Church, were the most numer¬ ous of these sects, and the Nestorians the least. Ispa¬ han was filled with Indians of the Brahmin religion ; they were computed at no less than twenty thousand. The greater part of these were Banians, who carry on a traffic with twenty different nations from Cape Comorin to the Caspian Sea, without intermixing with any one of them.

In short, all religions were well looked upon in Persia, except the sect of Omar, as that was the relig¬ ion of their enemies. In like manner the English government, which it permits every sect to estab¬ lish itself with impunity, can hardly be prevailed upon to tolerate the Roman Catholic religion, because it stands in fear of its power.

The Persian Empire was justly apprehensive of that of the Turks, which was greatly superior to it in numbers and extent of country. The soil of Persia

256 Ancient and Modern History.

is not so fruitful as that of Turkey; and it has not, like that empire, the advantage of the sea. The Persians were not then in possession of the port of Ormus, the Portuguese having made themselves masters of it in the year 1507. An inconsiderable European people lorded it in the Persian Gulf, and excluded that nation from all commerce by sea. The great Shah Abbas, powerful as he was, was obliged to have recourse to the English to eject the Portu¬ guese, in 1622. The Europeans, by their numerous fleets, have been always masters of the fate of those coasts where they have landed.

Though the soil of Persia is not so fertile as that of Turkey, its natives are more industrious; they cultivate the sciences more, but what they call the sciences do not merit that name with us.

As the European missionaries filled all China with amazement even by the little knowledge they pos¬ sessed of natural philosophy and the mathematics, they would doubtless no less have surprised the Persians. Their language is very beautiful, and has undergone no alteration for these six hundred years past. Their poetry is sublime, and their fables ingen¬ ious. But though they know a little more of geom¬ etry than the Chinese, yet they carried it not much beyond the elements of Euclid. They were acquainted with no other astronomical system than that of Ptolemy, which is still used by them, as it was for a long time in Europe, only as the means of attaining to judicial astrology. Everything with the

Persia — Manners and Customs. 257

Persians was governed by the influence of the stars, as with the ancient Romans by the flight of birds, and the feeding of the sacred fowls. Chardin pre¬ tends that in his time the state expended four mil¬ lions yearly upon astrologers. Had a Newton, a Halley, or a Cassini been born in Persia, he would have been neglected unless he had pretended to foretell futurity.

Their medicinal knowledge was like that of all unlearned nations, a practice built upon experiments reduced to rules, without any knowledge of anatomy. This, like the other sciences, had fallen to decay; but they were all revived again in the beginning of the sixteenth century, by the discoveries of Vesalius,1 and the penetrating genius of Fernel.2

1 Andrew Vesalius was born at Brussels in 1512. He was

educated at Louvain and studied medicine at Paris, under the celebrated Jacobus Sylvius. He applied himself partic¬ ularly to the study of anatomy, and was public demonstrator in the university of that city ; at the age of eighteen he pub¬ lished his book, entitled “De Humani Corporis Fabrica.” He taught anatomy at Louvain, Bologna, Pisa, and was hon¬ ored with a professor’s chair in the university of Padua. The emperor Charles V. appointed him his physician, and the same honorable office he retained under Philip II. But, tired of a court life, or being enjoined a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, by way of penance for having opened a Spanish gentleman before he was quite dead, he repaired to Pales¬ tine, on his return from which he was shipwrecked on the island of Zante, where he miserably perished by hunger. He was certainly an expert anatomist, and author of many excellent treatises on that subject; of which an edition was published at Leyden in 1725, by the celebrated Boerhaave, Vol. 27 — 17

258 Ancient and Modern History.

In short, of whatever civilized people of Asia we make mention, we may say this — they have gone before us, and we have surpassed them.

CHAPTER CXXXI.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY — ITS CUSTOMS, GOVERNMENT, AND REVENUES.

The power and progress of the Ottoman emperors was of longer duration than that of the Sufis ; for after the reign of Amurath II. there was one con¬ tinued chain of victories.

Mahomet II. had conquered a number of domin¬ ions that might have made his successors contented with such an inheritance : but Selim I. added fresh conquests to these. In 1515, he subdued Syria and Mesopotamia, and undertook the reduction of Egypt.

• entitled “Andrece Vesalii Opera Omnia Anatomica et Chir- urgica.”

2 John Francis Fernel, or Fernelius, flourished in the six¬ teenth century, and was first physician to Henry II., king of France. He was a complete scholar, and wrote Latin with great purity. He was not only in great esteem in France, but held in great veneration by foreigners. Joannes Impe- riali says the writings of Fernelius display the eloquence of Cicero and the learning of Hippocrates. Patina, professor of medicine in the royal college of Paris, declared that he would think it a much greater honor to be descended from Fernelius than to be king of Scotland or kinsman to the grand seignior. His treatises on medicine are at present little read, though still admired for the Latinity. He died at the age of fifty-two, in I5i5> and left a very considerable for¬ tune, accumulated in the course of his practice.

The Ottoman Empire. 259

1 his enterprise would have been attended with very- little difficulty, had he had only Egyptians to fight against; but Egypt was governed and defended by a formidable foreign militia, like that of the janissa¬ ries. These were Circassians, who also came out of Tartary: they were known by the name of Mame¬ lukes, which signifies slaves ; either because the first sultan of Egypt, who employed them, had purchased them as slaves, or because it was a name which attached them more closely to the person of the prince, which indeed seems the most probable con¬ jecture. In fact, the figurative manner of speaking used by all the Orientals has introduced the most ridiculously pompous titles for their sovereigns, and the most abject appellations for their servants. The grand seignior’s pashas call themselves his slaves ; and, in our time, Nadir Shah, who imprisoned his master, Thamasp, and put out his eyes, only called himself his slave, as the word “ kouli ” testifies.

These Mamelukes had been the masters of Egypt ever since the last Crusades. They were conquered and made prisoners by St. Louis ; since which they had established a government nearly resembling that of Algiers. A king, and twenty-four governors for the provinces, were chosen from among these soldiers. The vigor of this warlike race was not in the least impaired by the climate they lived in ; and their numbers were kept up every year by the addi¬ tion of other Circassians, who were called in to fill

260 Ancient and Modern History.

up this body of conquerors. Egypt remained under this government for almost three hundred years.

Tumanbai was the last king of the Mamelukes; he is famous only for his misfortune in being taken prisoner by Selim ; but he deserves to be yet further known by an incident which may appear strange to us, but was by no means so among the Orientals. Selim, after having defeated him, made him gov¬ ernor of the kingdom whose crown he had taken from him. Tumanbai, who, from a king, had become a pasha, had the fate of most pashas. He was stran¬ gled after having governed only a few months.

Solyman, the son of Selim, was always a formid¬ able enemy, both to the Christians and Persians. In 1521 he took Rhodes, and in 1526 the greater part of Hungary. Moldavia and Wallachia became real fiefs of his empire. He laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failing in this enterprise, he turned his arms against Persia; and meeting with better fortune on the Euphrates than on the Danube, he made himself master of the city of Bagdad, as did his father, from whom the Persians had afterward retaken it. He reduced Georgia, which is the ancient Iberia. In a word, he carried his victorious arms into all parts; for his admiral, Ivhair-ed-Deen Barbarossa, after having laid waste Apulia, sailed into the Red Sea, and took the kingdom of Yemen, which is rather a country of India than of Arabia. He resembled Charles V., to whom he was superior in military merit, by his continual journeys. He was the first

26i

The Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman emperor who had ever been in alliance with France, an alliance which has subsisted ever since. He died in Hungary, while he was laying siege to the town of Zigeth, but victory waited on him in his last moments ; for the breath was scarcely departed from his body, when the town was taken by assault. His empire extended from Algiers to the Euphrates, and from the farther end of the Black Sea, to the extremity of Greece and Epirus.

In 1571 his successor took the island of Cyprus from the Venetians. How can all our historians pre¬ tend to tell us that he undertook this conquest only for the sake of drinking Malmsey wine, which is the produce of this island, and of giving the govern¬ ment of it to a Jew? Selim made himself master of it for convenience : the possession of Cyprus was necessary for those who were masters of Natolia; and no emperor ever would conquer a kingdom for the sake of a Jew, or a particular sort of wine. A Jew, named Mequinez, furnished some hints for making this conquest ; and the vanquished mingled fables with this truth, of which the conquerors were entirely ignorant.

After having suffered the Turks to make them¬ selves masters of the most beautiful countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, we contributed to enrich them. Venice traded with them at the very time they were depriving her of the isle of Cyprus, and had ordered the senator Bragadino, governor of Fama- gosta, to be flayed alive. Genoa, Florence, and

262 Ancient and Modern History.

Marseilles disputed for the trade of Constantinople ; and these cities paid ready money for the silks and other commodities of Asia. The Christian mer¬ chants enriched themselves indeed by this trade, but it was at the expense of Christendom. Very few silks were bought in Italy, none in France. We have even been frequently obliged to buy corn from Con¬ stantinople ; but, at length, industry has repaired these injuries which our country suffered from nature and negligence. The manufactures have made the trade of the Christians, especially of the French with Turkey, very advantageous; notwith¬ standing the opinion of Count Marsigli, who is not so well acquainted with this great article of the interest of nations, as the merchants of London and Marseilles.

The nations of Christendom trade with the Otto¬ mans in the same manner as with all the rest of Asia. We go to these people, who never come to us in the West, which is an evident proof that we want them. The seaport towns of the Levant are filled with our ships and merchants. All the trading nations of Europe have consuls there. Most of them send ambassadors-in-orditiary to the Ottoman Porte, which never sends any to our courts. The Porte looks upon these perpetual ambassadors as a kind of homage which the Christians pay to her power. She has frequently offered insults to our ministers, which would have occasioned a war between any two Chris¬ tian princes ; but which it has been always thought

The Ottoman Empire. 263

proper to put up with from the Ottoman Porte. King William III. of England was wont to say: “ There is no point of honor to be insisted on with Turks.” This may be the language of a merchant who wants to dispose of his goods, but it can never be that of a king, who is jealous of what the world calls honor.

The government of the Turkish Empire is as different from ours as their manners and religion. One part of the grand seignior’s revenues consists in the productions of the several countries under his dominions, and not in coined specie, as in our Christian states. The canal of Constantinople is covered all the year with ships, which bring all the provisions necessary for the seraglio, the janissaries, and the fleet, from Egypt, Greece, Natolia, and the coast of the Pontus Euxinus. We find by the canon name, or registers of the empire, that the revenue of the treasury, till 1683, did not amount to above thirty-two thousand purses, which is not more than forty-six millions of our present currency.

This revenue would not be sufficient to keep on foot such large armies, and maintain such a number of officers. The pashas of every province have cer¬ tain funds allotted out of the province itself, for maintaining the soldiers, which are furnished by the fiefs ; but these funds are far from being large ; those of the province of Asia Minor did not at most exceed one million two hundred thousand livres; that of Diarbekir was one hundred thousand ; Aleppo was not more ; and the fruitful country of Damns-

264 Ancient and Modern History.

cus did not furnish its pasha with quite two hundred thousand francs ; that of Erzerum gave about two hundred thousand. The whole country of Greece, which they call Romelia, gave its pasha one million two thousand livres. In a word, all these revenues with which the pashas and beglerbegs maintained the ordinary troops in 1683, did not amount to ten of our millions. Moldavia and Wallachia did not fur¬ nish two hundred thousand livres to their princes, for the maintenance of eight thousand soldiers in the service of the Ottoman Porte. The captain pasha did not raise over eight hundred thousand livres to maintain the fleet, from all the fiefs called zaims and timariots, which were dispersed all along the seacoasts.

By these extracts from the canon name, it fol¬ lows that the whole Turkish government was main¬ tained with less than sixty millions of our livres in ready money ; and this expense, which has not been much increased since 1683, is not one-third of what is paid in Franc*. and England, for the national debt; but then there is a much greater circulation in these two kingdoms, and trade is much more lively than in Turkey.

But what is shocking, confiscations are reckoned a principal article in the sultan’s private revenues. One of the ancient acts of tyranny established is that the possessions of a family belong to the sovereign, when the father has been condemned. A sultan has the head of his vizier brought to him, and this head

The Ottoman Empire. 265

brings him sometimes several millions. Nothing can be more horrible than a right which sets such a price upon cruelty, and gives a temptation for murder and injustice.

As to the movable effects of the officers of the porte, we have already observed that they belong to the sultan by an ancient usurpation, which has been but too long a custom even among Christians. Public administration throughout the universe has been frequently nothing but an authorized robbery ; except in some republican states, where the rights of liberty and property have been held more sacred, and the revenues of the state, by being moderate, were more easily and better managed; because the eye can easily take in small objects, whereas those which are too great confound the sight.

It may be presumed then, that the Turks have executed great things at a very small expense. The appointments annexed to the greatest dignities are very small, as we may judge by the mufti’s place, which is worth only two thousand aspres a day, which is not the tenth part of the revenue of the arch¬ bishopric of Toledo. It is the same with respect to the place of grand vizier, which, without confisca¬ tions and presents, would be much more honorable than lucrative.

The Turks have not made war, as the princes of Europe do at present, by the means of money and negotiations. Strength of body and the fury of the janissaries have established this empire, without the

266 Ancient and Modern History.

help of discipline, which still supports itself by the abject condition of the conquered people, and the jealousies of neighboring nations.

The sultans have never brought more than one hundred and forty thousand combatants into the field at one time, if we except the multitudes which followed their camp. But this number was still superior to all that the Christians would oppose to them.

CHAPTER CXXXII.

THE BATTLE OF LEPANTO.

The Venetians, who, after having lost the island of Cyprus, still continued to trade with the Turks, and still ventured to treat them as enemies, applied for assistance to all the princes of Christendom, whom common interest should have united in their cause. This was a cause which should have raised another Crusade ; but by having exhausted themselves in so many needless ones before, of which we have already taken notice, they would not now engage in one that was really necessary. Pope Pius V. did what was much better than preaching a Crusade; he had the courage to declare war against the Ottoman Empire, by entering into a league with the Venetians and Philip II. of Spain. And now for the first time, St. Peter’s standard was displayed against the crescent, and the galleys of Rome encountered the Ottoman fleet. This single action of the pope’s, which was

The Battle of Lepanto. 267

the last of his life, is alone sufficient to render his memory sacred.

We must not form an idea of this pontiff from the pictures embellished by the pencil of flattery, blackened by the strokes of malignity, or sketched by a luxuriant fancy. We should judge of men only from facts. Pius V., whose family name was Gisleri, was one of those men whom merit and fortune have drawn from obscurity, and raised to the first rank among princes. By his furious zeal, he added to the severity of the Inquisition ; and the cruel death which he inflicted upon several citizens shows him to have been of a harsh and cruel disposition. The intrigues he put in practice to raise the Irish against Queen Elizabeth, and the warmth with which he fomented the troubles in France ; his famous bull in coena Domini, which he ordered to be published every year, show that his zeal for the greatness of the papal see was not conducted with moderation. He had formerly been a Dominican friar ; and the natural severity of his character had been increased by that morose spirit which is bred in a cloister. But this man, though bred among monks, had, like Sixtus V., some royal virtues, which are not con¬ fined to a throne, but depend on the character and disposition.

Pius V. served as a model to the famous pope Sixtus V., who copied the example of this pontiff, and, in the space of a few years, amassed by prudent savings a sufficient treasure to make the holy see

263 Ancient and Modern History.

considered as a respectable power. By these savings he was enabled to send a large fleet of galleys to sea. His zeal made him indefatigable in soliciting all the princes of Christendom for their assistance, but he met only with delays, or excuses of inability.

He vainly applied to Charles IX. of France, to the emperor Maximilian, to Sebastian, king of Portugal, and to Sigismund II. of Poland. Charles was in alliance with the Turks, and besides had no ships to send. The emperor Maximilian stood in fear of the Ottoman power, and wanted money; he had made a truce with the Turks, and did not dare to break it. Don Sebastian of Portugal was as yet too young to exercise that valor which afterward proved his ruin on the coast of Barbary. Poland was drained by her wars with the Russians, and Sicis- mund was enfeebled with age. There was then only Philip II. who took part with the pope in his design. He alone, of all the Catholic princes, was sufficiently rich to assume the prodigious expense of the necessary armament; and was alone able, by the good regulations of his gov¬ ernment, to carry this project to a speedy execu¬ tion. He was principally interested in this, through the necessity there was of securing his Italian domin¬ ions and the places he possessed on the coast of Barbarj' from the insults of the Ottoman fleet ; accordingly he entered into alliance with the Vene¬ tians, though always their secret enemy in Italy, against the Turks, whom he feared still more.

The Battle of Lepanto. 269

Never was so large an armament fitted out with so much expedition. Two hundred galleys, six large galeasses, twenty-five ships of war, with fifty sail of transports, were all ready in the ports of Sicily by the month of September, which was less than five months after the taking of Cyprus. Half of this armament was furnished by Philip. The Venetians were at the expense of two-thirds of the other half, and the rest was supplied by the pope. The command of the fleet was given to the famous Don John of Austria, son of the emperor Charles V., and Marc Antonio Colonna commanded under him, in the pope’s name. The house of Colonna, so long the inveterate foe to the popes, was now the chief prop of their power. Sebastian Veniero, whom we call Venier, was admiral of the Venetian fleet. There had been three doges of his family j none of whom equalled him in reputation. Barba- rigo, whose family was in no less esteem in Venice, was proveditor, or intendant, of the fleet. The Maltese sent three galleys, which were the most they could furnish. The Genoese, who feared Selim less than they did Philip II., and sent but one single galley, hardly deserve to be mentioned.

Plistorians tell us that there were no less than fifty thousand fighting men on board this fleet. Nothing but exaggerations are to be found in the accounts of battles. A fleet of two hundred and six galleys and twenty-five other ships could not contain at most more than twenty thousand fighting men.

270 Ancient and Modern History.

The Turkish fleet alone was stronger than the three Christian squadrons all together ; it was composed of about two hundred and fifty galleys. The two fleets met in the Gulf of Lepanto, the ancient Nau- pactus, not far from Corinth. Never since the famous battle of Actium had so numerous a fleet been seen in the Grecian seas, nor so memorable an engagement. The Turkish galleys were worked by Christian slaves, and the Christian galleys by Turks, who were, against their wills, obliged to serve against their country.

The two fleets engaged with all the ancient and modern weapons of offence; such as arrows, long javelins, grenades, grappling-irons, cannon, mus¬ kets, spears, and sabres. Most of the galleys were grappled together, and the soldiers fought hand to hand on their decks, as on a field of battle. At length on Oct. 5, 1571, the Christians gained the victory, which was the more glorious, as being the first of its kind.

Don John of Austria and the Venetian admiral, Veniero, attacked the ship which carried the Turkish admiral, Ali, who was taken with his galley, and his head struck off and hoisted upon his own flag-staff. This was abusing the rights of war ; but those who had braved Bragadino in Famagosta did not deserve better treatment. The Turks lost over one hundred and fifty ships in this engagement. It is difficult to tell the number of slain: some make them fif¬ teen thousand ; about five thousand Christian cap-

The Battle of Lepanto. 271

tives were set at liberty. Venice celebrated this victory with such feasts as she alone was capable of giving at that time. Constantinople was in the utmost consternation ; and Pope Pius V., when he received the news of this signal victory, the honor of which was ascribed to the generalissimo, Don John, but in which the Venetians had the greatest share, cried out in a transport of joy: “ There was a man sent from God, and his name was John ; ” words which were afterward applied to John Sobieski, king of Poland, when he delivered Vienna.

Don John of Austria now acquired suddenly the greatest reputation that any general had yet enjoyed. Every nation reckons its own heroes, and passes by in silence those of other nations. Don John, as the avenger of Christendom, was the hero of all nations. He was now compared to his father, Charles V., whom he resembled in other respects. But he was still more deservedly the idol of the people when, two years afterward, he took Tunis, as his father had done, and like him set up an African king, who was a vassal to Spain. But what were the advantages gained by the battle of Lepanto, and the taking of Tunis? The Venetians gained no ground of the Turks, and in 1574 Selim II. retook the kingdom of Tunis without resistance, when all the Christians who were found there were massacred : so that the victory of Lepanto seemed rather to have been on the side of the Turks.

Ancient and Modern History.

272

CHAPTER CXXXIII.

THE COAST OF BARBARY.

The coast of Barbary, from Egypt to the kingdoms of Fez and Morocco, formed an addition to the Turkish Empire ; but it was rather under the protec¬ tion than dominion of the sultans.

The country of Barca, with its deserts, formerly so famous for the temple of Jupiter Ammon, was under the government of the pasha of Egypt. Cyrenaica had a governor to itself. Tripoli, which is the next state west, was taken by Peter of Navarre in the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, in 1510, and given by Charles V. to the Knights of Malta. But Selim’s admirals made themselves masters of it, and in process of time it has been converted into a kind of republican government, at the head of which is a general called the Dey, who is chosen by the militia.

Farther on you meet with Tunis, the ancient abode of the Carthaginians. You have seen that Charles V. gave a king to this state, and rendered it tribu¬ tary to Spain ; that this son, Don John of Austria, took it again from the Moors with equal glory ; and that Selim II. reduced it once more to the Turkish dominion, and exterminated all the Christians, three years after the famous battle of Lepanto. This prov¬ ince was afterward changed into the same kind of government as that of Tripoli.

The Coast of Barbary. 273

Algiers, which bounds the Turkish Empire in Africa, is the ancient Mauritania, so famous for its kings, Juba, Massinissa, and Syphax. It is with difficulty that we can now perceive the ruins of Cirta, its capital city, any more than those of Carthage, Memphis, or even of Alexandria, which is no longer in the place where it was built by Alexander. This kingdom of the great Juba had become so inconsiderable that Cheredin Barbarossa preferred the title of the grand seignior’s admiral to that of king of Algiers, and ceded this province to Solyman,1 since which time till the beginning of the seventeenth century Algiers was governed by pashas sent thither from the Ottoman Porte. But at length the same form of government that had been established at Tripoli and Tunis was instituted at Algiers, now a retreat for corsairs.

Constantinople was always looked upon as the

1 Cheredin, or rather Khair-ed-Deen Barbarossa, being apprehensive of fresh invasions from Spain, thought it con¬ venient to put his kingdom under the protection of the grand seignior, who appointed him viceroy and sent him a rein¬ forcement of Turkish janissaries, in 1519. When he sailed up the Levant as captain pasha, or Turkish admiral, he left the administration of Algiers to Hassan Aga Sardo, whom he had taken in his infancy from the island of Sardinia, caused to be castrated, and educated under his own eye. This Hassan succeeded him as viceroy of Algiers, and reigned with great reputation for justice and humanity. At his decease the council and militia of Algiers, without wait¬ ing for orders from the Porte, unanimously elected for their dey a Turkish officer, called Hagi.

274 Ancient and Modern History.

capital of all these states, and indeed she seems formed by her situation to command them all. She has Asia in her front, and Europe behind her; her port, which is as secure as it is capacious, commands the entrance of the Black Sea to the eastward, and of the Mediterranean to the westward. Rome, which is far inferior in point of situation, being placed in a barren soil and in a corner of Italy, where nature has formed no convenient harbor, seemed much less proper to be the mistress of nations ; and yet she became the capital of an empire of thrice the extent of that of the Turks: the reason is, that the Romans exceeded all other nations in military dis¬ cipline; whereas the Turks, after they conquered Constantinople, found almost all the rest of Europe as well acquainted with the art of war and better dis¬ ciplined than themselves.

CHAPTER CXXXIV.

THE KINGDOM OF FEZ AND MOROCCO.

The grand seignior’s protection does not extend so far as the empire of Morocco, which is a vast country, including part of Mauritania Tingitana. Tangiers was the capital of the Roman colony in this part. From this country came those Moors who conquered Spain. It was conquered itself by the Portuguese toward the end of the fifteenth century, by whom it was in latter times bestowed on Charles II. of England, in dowry with an infanta of Portu-

Philip II., King of Spain. 275

gal. This monarch afterward ceded it to the kings of Morocco. Few cities have experienced more revolutions than Tangiers.

The empire of Morocco is peopled by the ancient Moors, by a few Arabian Bedouins, who followed the caliphs in their conquests, and who still live in tents like their ancestors, by the Jews who were driven out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and by blacks, who dwell on the other side of Mount Atlas. In all the houses and the armies throughout this empire you see a mixture of whites, blacks, and a mongrel breed. These people have in all times carried on a trade with Guinea. They travelled over the deserts to those coasts whither the Portu¬ guese went by sea. They never knew the sea other¬ wise than as the element of pirates. In short, all the vast coast of Africa, from Damietta to Mount Atlas, was altogether barbarous ; while several of our northern nations, who were formerly more barbarous than they, acquired the politeness of ancient Greece and Rome.

1

CHAPTER CXXXV.

PHILIP II., KING OF SPAIN.

After the reign of Charles V., four great potentates held the balance of power between the other Euro¬ pean states of Christendom ; Spain, by the riches of the new world; France, by her own power and in virtue of her situation, which prevented the vast

27 6 Ancient and Modern History.

dominions of Philip II. from communicating- with one another ; Germany, by the number of its princes, which, though always at variance among themselves, were always united for the defence of their country ; and England, after the death of Mary, solely by the conduct of its queen, Elizabeth; for as a kingdom it was very inconsiderable, since Scotland was so far from making a joint body with it that it was its enemy, and Ireland was only an expensive honor.

The kingdoms of the North had not yet entered into the political system of Europe, and Italy could not be a weighty power. Philip II. seemed to have this state under his command. Philibert, duke of Savoy, who was governor of the Netherlands, was wholly at his service. Charles Emanuel, the son of this Philibert, and son-in-law of Philip II., was equally dependent on him. The duchy of Milan and the two Sicilies, of which he was in possession, together with the immense treasures which flowed in upon him from his acquisitions in the new hemi¬ sphere, made the rest of the Italian states tremble for their liberties. In short, Philip II. acted the chief part in the theatre of Europe, though not the most approved. Many less powerful sovereigns, who were contemporary with him, have left a much greater name behind them, as Elizabeth and Henry IV., especially the latter. His generals and his enemies were more esteemed than himself. The names of Alexander F arnese and of the princes of Orange are

Philip II., King of Spain. 2 77

infinitely superior to his. Posterity makes a great difference between power and glory.

To form a thorough knowledge of the times of Philip II. we must in the first place make ourselves acquainted with his character, which was partly the cause of all the great events of the age he lived in, and which is only to be discovered by facts, without relying upon the pens of contemporary writers, who were for the most part guided either by flattery or hatred. As for the far-fetched descriptions which some of our modern historians give of the person¬ ages of antiquity, they are fit only for romances.

Those who have compared Philip II. with Tiberius most certainly never saw either. In the first place, when Tiberius commanded the Roman legions and sent them forth to battle, he was always at their head, but Philip was in a chapel between two Fran¬ ciscan friars at the time that the prince of Savoy and Count Egmont, whom he afterward executed on a scaffold, gained the famous battle of St. Quentin for him. Tiberius was neither a hypocrite nor an enthusiast. Philip frequently embraced the crucifix while he was giving orders for a murder. Neither did the Roman and the Spaniard resemble each other in their debaucheries; nay, that very dissimulation by which both were so much distinguished appears to have been different in the one and the other. That of Tiberius seems to have been more crafty, that of Philip more reserved. We shall make a dis¬ tinction between speaking in order to deceive and

278 Ancient and Modern History.

being silent in order to be impenetrable. Both of them seem to have had a calm and deliberate cruelty ; but how many princes and men in public stations have deserved the same reproach?

To form a just idea of Philip, let us ask ourselves what kind of king he must be who, while he affected an outside of piety, was publicly reproached by Will¬ iam, prince of Orange, in his manifesto, with having been privately married to Dona Isabella Osoria, at the same time that he espoused his first wife, Mary of Portugal. He is accused by the same prince of Orange in the face of all Europe with having mur¬ dered his own son, and poisoned his third wife, Isabella of France, and with having obliged the prince of Ascoli to marry a woman whom he himself had got with child. We should not depend upon the testimony of an enemy; but then this enemy was a prince generally esteemed in Europe. He sent a copy of a manifesto containing these accusations to every court. Was it pride or consciousness of the truth which prevented Philip from making a reply? Could he possibly despise this dreadful manifesto of William’s, as one despises the nameless libels of obscure vagabonds, which even private persons disdain to answer, and which Louis XIV. always suffered to pass unheeded? To these accusations let us add his too well authenticated amours with the wife of his favorite, Ruy Gomez, the murder of Escovedo, and the persecution of Antonio Perez, who had assassinated him by his order: let us

Philip II., King of Spain. 279

remember at the same time that this was the man who talked of nothing but his zeal for religion, and who sacrificed everything to this zeal.

Let us oppose to these actions his careful atten¬ tion to the administration of justice throughout his kingdom, an attention which cost no more than the trouble of willing, and strengthens the authority of the prince, his readiness in the cabinet, his strict application to public business, his perpetual watch¬ fulness over the conduct of his ministers, ever attended with distrust; the attention with which he examined into everything himself, so far as a king possibly could ; his constant endeavors to foment divisions among his neighbors, and to preserve the peace of Spain; his minute observations of all that passed in one-half of the globe, from Mexico to the extremity of Sicily ; and that austere composure of countenance which neither disappointments in politics, nor the tumult of the passions could ever ruffle, and we may then form some idea of the char¬ acter of Philip II.

But we must now see what ascendency he had in Europe. He was master of Spain, of the duchy of Milan, of the two Sicilies, and of all the Nether¬ lands. His ports were filled with ships : and his father had left him the best disciplined and most valiant troops in Europe, all commanded by persons who had been the companions of his victories. His second wife, Mary, queen of England, wholly gov¬ erned by his insinuations, had condemned all her

280 Ancient and Modern History.

Protestant subjects to the flames, and declared war against France only upon a letter from him. He might therefore reckon England as a kingdom of which he was the master. The ample harvests of gold and silver which were sent him from the new world made him a more powerful prince than his father, Charles V., who had only enjoyed the first- fruits of them.

Italy trembled for her liberty, which determined Pope Paul IV., whose name was Caraffa, and who was a native of Spain, to side with France, as his predecessor, Clement VII., had done. He was desir¬ ous, like all the other popes who had gone before him, of settling a balance which their hands were too weak to hold ; and accordingly proposed to Henry II. to give Naples and Sicily to one of the children of France.

It had always been the ambition of the Valois family to subdue the duchy of Milan and the king¬ dom of the two Sicilies. The pope had thoughts of raising an army, and desired Henry II. to let him have the famous Francis, duke of Guise, to command it ; but most of the cardinals were in Philip’s pay. Pope Paul was ill-obeyed, he had but few troops, which served only to expose Rome to be taken and sacked by the duke of Alva, Philip’s general, as it had not long before been by Charles V. The duke of Guise arrived, marched through Piedmont, where the French were still in possession of Turin, and drew near to Rome with a few men-at-arms ; but no sooner

28 I

Philip II., King of Spain.

had he reached that city than he heard that the French had lost the fatal battle of St. Quentin in Picardy, Aug. io, 1557.

Mary of England had furnished her husband with eight thousand English forces against the French. Philip came to London to see these troops embark, but not to head them himself. This army, joined with the flower of the Spanish troops, commanded by the duke of Savoy, Philibert Emanuel, one of the greatest generals in his age, gained so complete a victory over the French army at St. Quentin that hardly any of their infantry was left, the whole being either killed or taken ; the victors lost only eighty men : Constable de Montmorency and almost all the general officers were taken prisoners : the duke d’Enghien was mortally wounded, the flower of the nobility destroyed, and all France plunged in mourn¬ ing and consternation. The defeats of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt had not been more fatal, and yet France, so often on the brink of ruin, still rose superior to its distresses.

All the schemes of Henry II. against Italy were now frustrated ; the duke of Guise was called home. In the meantime the victorious duke of Savoy took St. Quentin, and he might have marched to the gates of Paris, which Henry was now fortifying in the utmost haste, and consequently very deficiently. But Philip contented himself with paying a visit to his victorious camp, and proved by his conduct that great events depend frequently upon the characters

282 Ancient and Modern History.

of men. His character was to give little credit to courage, and give all to politics. He suffered his enemy to recover breath, in hopes of gaining more advantage from a peace, the terms of which were in his power to dictate, than by those victories in which he could have no share himself. He allowed the duke of Guise time to return home to assemble an army and put the kingdom in a state of defence.

At that time it seemed as if kings did not think themselves made to do their own business. Henry H. appointed the duke of Guise viceroy of France, under the title of lieutenant-general of the king¬ dom; in which station he had precedence of the constable.

The taking of Calais and the adjacent country in the depth of winter, and in the midst of the general consternation with which the defeat of St. Quentin had overwhelmed France, and the driving of the English from the possession of that important fort¬ ress which they had kept for some two hundred and thirteen years, was an action which astonished all Europe, and raised the reputation of the duke of Guise above that of all the generals of his time. This conquest was more glorious and profitable than difficult.1 Queen Mary had left but a weak garrison

1 Philip, who had by this time quitted England, sent inti¬ mation to Mary that the court of France had projected a scheme against Calais, and offered to supply her with troops for its defence ; but Mary’s council considered this proposal as an expedient of Philip to get possession of Calais. They

Philip II., King of Spain. 283

in Calais, and her fleet arrived only to see the stand¬ ards of France planted on the walls. This loss, which was chiefly owing to her ministry, completed the aversion which the English had entertained to Mary.

But while the duke of Guise thus revived the drooping spirits of the French by the taking of Calais, and afterward of Thionville, Philip’s army gained another considerable victory over Marshal de Termes, near Gravelines, under the command of Count Egmont ; that very Count Egmont whom Philip afterward caused to be beheaded for defend¬ ing the rights and liberties of his country.

The loss of so many pitched battles sustained by the French, while at the same time they took such a number of towns by assault, affords reason to believe that this nation was then, as in the time of Julius Caesar, formed rather for impetuous attacks than that regular discipline and art of rallying which frequently determine the victory in the open field.

Philip made no greater advantage of the victory of Gravelines than he had done of that of St. Quentin ; but he made the glorious Peace of Ca- teau-Cambresis in 1559, by which, for the town of St. Quentin and the two villages of Ham and Chatelet, which he restored to the French, he got the strongholds of Thionville, Marienburg, Mont-

not only declined his offer, but also neglected to put the place in a state of defence, notwithstanding the repeated solicitations of Lord Wentworth, the governor.

284 Ancient and Modern History.

medy, Hedin, and the county of Charolais in full sovereignty. He made them destroy Terouane and Ivoi ; obliged them to restore Bouillon to the bishop of Liege ; Montferrat to the duke of Mantua ; Cor¬ sica to the Genoese ; Savoy, Piedmont, and Bresse to the duke of Savoy, and reserved a power to himself of keeping troops in Vercelli and Asti until the pre¬ tended claims of France upon Piedmont should be adjusted, and Plenry should have evacuated the towns of Turin, Pinerolo, Chieri, and Chivasso.

As to Calais and the adjacent country, Philip gave himself very little concern. . His wife, Mary of Eng¬ land, was dead ; and Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne. Nevertheless, the French king obliged himself to restore Calais in eight years, and to pay eight hundred thousand gold crowns, in case it was not given up at the end of this term. It was at the same time specified in the most express terms, that whether the eight hundred thousand crowns were paid or not, Henry and his successors should still be obliged to restore Calais.

This peace has always been considered as the most glorious action of Philip’s reign. Father Daniel attempts in vain to find out certain advantages in it for the French by pretending that Metz, Toul, and Verdun were preserved by this peace. They were never thought of in this treaty of Cateau-Cam- . bresis. Philip never paid the least attention to the concerns of Germany, and very little to those of his uncle Ferdinand, whose refusal to abdicate in his

Philip II., King of Spain. 285

favor he could never forgive. If, therefore, France gained anything by this treaty, it was by being entirely discouraged from any further designs of conquering Milan and Naples. With regard to Calais, France never restored this key of the king¬ dom to her ancient enemies, nor yet paid the eight hundred thousand gold crowns.

This war, like so many others, ended at last in a marriage. Philip espoused for his third wife Prin¬ cess Isabella, daughter of Henry II., who had been promised to Don Carlos ; and this unhappy match is said to have occasioned the untimely fate of Don Carlos and the princess.

Philip, after these glorious beginnings, returned to Spain in triumph, without having once drawn his sword. Everything seemed to favor his greatness: he had obliged Pope Paul IV. to sue for peace, which he granted. Henry II., his father-in-law and natural enemy, had lately been killed at a tourna¬ ment, and had left his kingdom full of factions, and governed by foreigners under an infant king. Philip, without stirring out of his cabinet, was the most formidable and powerful prince in Europe. He had but one thing to apprehend, which was, that the Protestant religion should insinuate itself into some of his dominions, especially those of the Low Countries bordering upon Germany, where he did not govern as king, but only as duke, count, marquis, and private nobleman ; and where the fundamental laws

286 Ancient and Modern History.

of the country prescribed bounds to the royal authority.

The grand principle of Philip’s politics was to have the papal see under his own management, by show¬ ing it all possible marks of outward respect, and everywhere exterminating the Protestants. There were very few of these people in Spain. However, he made a solemn vow before a crucifix to destroy them all ; a vow which he fully accomplished through the hearty assistance given him by the Inquisition. All who were suspected of being Protestants were burned in a slow fire at Valladolid, and Philip himself beheld their torments from his palace windows, and heard their cries without the least remorse. The archbishop of Toledo and Father Constantine Pontius, chaplain and confessor to Charles V., were both shut up in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and Pontius was burned in effigy after his death, as we have already remarked.

Philip, having been informed that there were cer¬ tain heretics inhabiting a valley of Piedmont, in the neighborhood of the duchy of Milan, gave orders to the governor of that state to send a body of troops thither, and wrote this short letter to him in his own hand: “To the gibbet with them all.” Having heard also that this new opinion had insinuated itself into some places in Calabria, he gave orders to put all the sectaries to the sword, except sixty, of which number one half were to be hanged, and the other

The United Provinces. 287

burned alive. This order was obeyed with a cruel exactness.

But these excessive cruelties, and the abuse of his authority at length weakened his immense power; for had he catered to his Flemish subjects he would never have had the mortification of seeing the repub¬ lic of the seven United Provinces formed wholly by his persecutions. He would have saved the enor¬ mous sums which this revolution cost him ; and aft¬ erward when all Portugal, together with its acquisi¬ tions in Africa and India, was added to his vast dominions, and France distracted by its civil wars was on the point of receiving laws from him and tak¬ ing his daughter for its queen, he might have com¬ passed the most noble designs, had he not been prevented by the fatal war which his rigorous administration had kindled in the Netherlands.

CHAPTER CXXXVI.

THE UNITED PROVINCES.

If we consult the several accounts of the founda¬ tion of this state, which was before practically unknown, and in a short space of time became so formidable, we shall find that it was formed without design and against all the rules of probability. The revolution began in the inland provinces of Brabant and Flanders, which were the only ones, however, that remained in subjection; while a little corner of the world, almost buried under water, and which

288 Ancient and Modern History.

throve only by its herring fishery, became a formid¬ able power, opposed Philip II., stripped his suc¬ cessors of almost all their possessions in the East Indies, and in the end became the protectors of them.

It cannot be denied that Philip II. was himself the cause of the people making so great a figure, which they themselves certainly never thought of doing; and that all their greatness was entirely owing to this monarch's cruelty and despotism.

It is necessary to consider; I, That every nation is not governed on the same plan ; 2, That the Low Countries were an assemblage of several lordships, which all belonged to Philip II. under different titles ; that each of these had its particular laws and cus¬ toms. 3, That in Friesland, and in the country of Groningen, a tribute of sixty thousand crowns was all that was due to the lord. 4, That no taxes could be laid on any of the cities. 5, That no employ¬ ments were to be bestowed on any but the natives; nor were any foreign troops to be kept in pay. 6, That no alteration could be made in the constitution without the consent of the three orders of the state. It was declared by the ancient constitutions of Bra¬ bant : “ That if the sovereign by violence or arti¬

fice should go about to infringe the privileges, the estates should be wholly absolved from their oath of allegiance, and at full liberty to act in such man¬ ner as to them should seem most convenient.” This had for a long time been the prevailing form of gov¬ ernment in the greater part of Europe ; no law was

The United Provinces. 289

carried into execution nor any moneys raised without the sanction of the assembly of the states. A gov¬ ernor of the province presided at these assemblies in the prince’s name, which governor was called a stadtholder, that is, the holder of the states through¬ out all the German Netherlands.

Philip II. in 1559 gave the government of the provinces of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht to William of Nassau, prince of Orange. It is to be observed that this title of prince did not signify prince of the empire. The principality of the city of Orange, which had fallen to his family from the house of Chalons as a donation, had been an ancient fief of the kingdom of Arles, now inde¬ pendent. William derived a more illustrious rank from the imperial house, from which he was descended ; but, although this house, which was as ancient as that of Austria, had given an emperor to Germany, it was not included in the rank of princes of the empire. The title of “ Prince,” which did not begin to be used till the reign of Frederick II., was taken only by the greater feudal lords. The imperial blood conferred no right nor honors, and the son of an emperor, not possessed of lands, was only emperor if elected ; and if he did not succeed his father on the throne he was no more than a private gentleman. William of Nassau was a count of the empire, as Philip II. was count of Holland, and lord of Malines; but he was still subject to Philip in quality of stadtholder.

Vol. 2f — 19

290 Ancient and Modern History.

Philip wanted to be absolute sovereign in the Low Countries, as he was in Spain. He was a man, and that was enough to make him conceive such a design : those in power are always desirous of removing all obstacles which limit them in the exercise of that power. But Philip had yet another advantage in view, by making himself absolute in a rich and large country that bordered so closely on France. He might, in this case, have been able at least to have dismembered that kingdom forever. And this was the more probable, since, after losing seven prov¬ inces, and being frequently very much cramped in the others, he was still on the point of subduing it, without ever having been at the head of an army himself.

In 1565 he endeavored to abrogate all the laws, to impose arbitrary taxes, to create new bishops, and to establish the office of the Inquisition, which he had never been able to introduce in Naples or Milan. The Flemish are naturally good subjects, but bad slaves. The fear of the Inquisition alone made more Protestants than all the writings of Calvin, among a people whose natural disposition inclined them neither to novelty nor insurrections. The principal lords of Brussels were the first who joined together to make a representation of their rights to the regent of the Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, daughter of Charles V. The court of Madrid called their meeting a conspiracy ; but in the Low Countries it was deemed a legal act. It is certain that the con-

The United Provinces. 291

federates were not rebels, since they sent the count de Berg, and Montigni, lord of Montmorency, to Spain to lay their complaints before the king. They desired that Cardinal de Granvelle, the prime min¬ ister, whose intrigues they dreaded, might be ban¬ ished. The court sent the duke of Alva against them, with a body of Spanish and Italian troops, and with orders to make as much use of executioners as soldiers. What is in other places the most speedy method of stifling a civil war was here the very occa¬ sion of raising one. William of Nassau, prince of Orange, surnamed the Silent, was almost the only one who thought of taking up arms ; the rest of his countrymen entertained no thoughts but those of submission.

There are certain proud and gloomy minds pos¬ sessed of the most sedate and stubborn intrepidity, which difficulties only serve to irritate. Such was the character of William the Silent, and after him of his great-grandson, the prince of Orange, king of Eng¬ land. William the Silent had neither money nor troops sufficient to oppose so powerful a monarch as Philip II. But persecution furnished him with both. The office of the Inquisition, newly set up at Brus¬ sels, had driven the people to desperation. The counts of Egmont and Horn and eighteen other gentlemen had their heads struck off, and their blood was the first cement of the republic of the United Provinces.

The prince of Orange, who had retired into Ger-

292 Ancient and Modern History.

many, after having been condemned to lose his head, could not hope to arm any but Protestants in his cause ; and to do this it was necessary that he should be a Protestant himself. Calvinism was the reign¬ ing religion of the maritime provinces of the Nether¬ lands, and William was born a Lutheran. Charles V., who had an affection for him, had made him a Catholic ; necessity now made him a Calvinist ; for the princes who have established, protected, or changed religions have very rarely had any of their own. It was with great difficulty that William could raise an army ; his lands in Germany were of little value, and the county of Nassau belonged to one of his brothers ; but, by the interest of his brothers and friends, his own merit, and liberal promises, he found himself at length supplied with troops. These he sent into Friesland, under the command of his brother, Count Louis; his newly raised army was cut off, but this did not discourage him : he raised another, composed of Germans and French, whom a religious enthusiasm and the hopes of plunder engaged in his service. Fortune still continued to frown on him, and not being able to penetrate into the Netherlands, he was reduced to serve in the Huguenot armies in France. The severities of the Spanish court, how¬ ever, furnished him with resources. The tax of the tenth penny on the sale of all personal estates, of the twentieth penny on real estates, and the hundredth on all estates in land, completely roused the resent¬ ment of the Flemish. How came it that the master

The United Provinces. 293

of Mexico and Peru was obliged to have recourse to such exactions ? and why did not Philip, like his father, go in person into that country and put a stop to these troubles?

In 1570 the prince of Orange entered Brabant with a small army, and retreated afterward into Zealand and Holland. The city of Amsterdam, now so famous, was then a small town, and did not dare to declare openly for the prince of Orange ; this city was at that time engaged in a new, and in appearance a mean trade, but which, however, laid the founda¬ tion of its present greatness. The catching of her¬ rings, and the art of salting them, do not appear very important objects in the history of the world; and yet by these was this once barren and despised country raised to a formidable pitch of power. Venice had not more noble beginnings. The great¬ est empires were first raised from hamlets, and the maritime powers from a few private fishing boats.

The prince of Orange’s whole dependence was in a few pirates ; one of these surprised the Brill; Flush¬ ing was brought to declare in his favor by a curate. At length the states of Holland and Zealand assembled at Dordrecht, and the city of Amsterdam itself joined in his cause and declared him stadt- holder ; so that he now held that dignity from the people which he had before held of the king. After this they abolished the Roman Catholic religion, that their government might have nothing in common with that of the Spaniards.

294 Ancient and Modern History.

These people, who had not for a long time been accounted of a martial disposition, became warriors in an instant. Never did two parties engage with more courage and fury. The Spaniards at the siege of Haarlem, in 1573, having thrown the head of one of the prisoners they had taken, into the town, the besieged threw them back the heads of eleven Span¬ iards, with this inscription in writing: “Ten heads for the payment of the tenth penny, and the eleventh for interest.” Haarlem afterward yielded, when the conquerors ordered all the magistrates, the ministers, and over one thousand five hundred of the inhab¬ itants of that city, to be hanged ; this was treating the Netherlands as they had done the new world. In short, the pen falls from my hand when I consider how men have behaved toward men.

The duke of Alva, whose inhumanities had lost the king two provinces, was at length recalled. He is said to have boasted, on leaving the Netherlands, that he had put eighteen thousand persons to death by the hands of the executioners. The horrors of war were continued with equal fury under the new governor, the grand commander de Requesens. In 1574 the prince of Orange’s army was again defeated, and his brother slain ; but his party was stiengthened by the animosity of the people, who, though naturally of a peaceable disposition, having once passed the bounds of temperance, knew not where to stop.

The siege and defence of Leyden — 1 ^74-75 _

The United Provinces.

295

was one of the strongest instances of what may be effected by perseverance and the love of liberty. The Dutch ventured on the very same expedient which they afterward put in practice in 1672, when Louis XIV. was at the gates of Amsterdam ; they open the sluices and let in the waters of the Yssel, the Meuse, and the ocean, which overflowed all the country, while a fleet of two hundred barks brought relief to the town, over the Spanish works. This prodigy was equalled by another on the side of the besiegers, who were so bold as to continue the siege and to undertake to draw off this inundation. His¬ tory does not furnish an instance of such an expedi¬ ent in the besieged, nor of so great obstinacy in besiegers ; but this obstinacy did them no service and Leyden still continues to celebrate the day of its deliverance. Here we must not forget to observe that at this siege the inhabitants made use of pigeons to convey letters to the prince of Orange, a prac¬ tice which is common in Asia.

What, then, was the wise and so much boasted administration of Philip II. when we find that his own troops in Flanders mutinied for want of pay, and plundered the city of Antwerp, and that all the provinces of the Netherlands, without either consult¬ ing him or his governor, made a treaty of peace with the rebels, published a general amnesty, released prisoners, demolished the Spanish fortifications, and gave orders to pull down the famous statue of the duke of Alva, which his pride had raised to his

296 Ancient and Modern History.

cruelty, and which was then standing in the citadel of Antwerp, of which Philip was master?

After the death of the grand commander de Requesens, Philip, instead of endeavoring to restore peace in the Netherlands by his presence, sent his brother, Don John of Austria, thither, a prince famous throughout all Europe for the glorious vic¬ tory he gained over the Turks at Lepanto, and for his ambition in attempting to get himself made king of Tunis.

Philip did not love Don John ; he feared his repu¬ tation, and was jealous of his designs. Neverthe¬ less he made him, against his will, governor of the Netherlands, in the hope that he might be the means of regaining the allegiance of that people, who respected in this prince the blood and valor of Charles V. In this, however, he was deceived ; the prince of Orange was proclaimed governor of Bra¬ bant in the city of Brussels, as soon as Don John had quitted it, after having been installed governor-gen¬ eral of the Netherlands. But this honor which they conferred on William hindered the provinces of Bra¬ bant and Flanders from recovering their liberty, as the Hollanders had done. There were too many great lords in those provinces ; these were jealous of the prince of Orange, and this jealousy preserved ten provinces to the crown of Spain. They invited the archduke Matthias to be their governor-general, in conjunction with Don John of Austria. It is hardly conceivable how an archduke of Austria, a

The United Provinces.

297

near relative of Philip II. and a Catholic, came to put himself at the head of a party almost entirely com¬ posed of Protestants, against the chief of his house : but ambition knows no ties, and Philip was beloved neither by the emperor nor the empire.

All was then division and confusion. The prince of Orange, appointed by the states lieutenant-gen¬ eral to the archduke Matthias, necessarily became this prince’s secret rival; both were rivals to Don John, and the states distrusted all three. Another party, equally discontented with the states and the three princes, completed the distractions of this wretched country. In 1578 the states published an edict for liberty of conscience, but there was no longer any cure for the rage of factions. Don John, after gaining a useless battle at Gemblours, died in the midst of these troubles, in the flower of his age.

This son of Charles V. was succeeded by a grand¬ son no less illustrious; this was Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, a descendant of Charles by the mother’s side, and of Pope Paul III. by the father’s, and he it was who afterward came to France to deliver Paris and give battle to Henry the Great. History does not furnish us with a more celebrated name, and yet this illustrious captain could not pre¬ vent the foundation of the seven united provinces, nor check the progress of this republic, which rose under his eyes.

These seven provinces, which we now call Hol¬ land, were, by the care of the prince of Orange,

298 Ancient and Modern History.

brought, on Jan. 29, 1579, to form that union which at first appeared so brittle, and has since proved so durable, and by which seven states, though always independent of each other, and always having differ¬ ent interests to support, have yet been always as closely united in the great cause of liberty as the bundle of arrows which forms their arms and is their truest emblem.

This union of Utrecht, which was the foundation of the republic, was that of the stadtholdership like¬ wise. William was declared chief of the seven united provinces under the title of captain, admiral- general, and stadtholder. The other ten provinces which, together with Holland, might have formed the most powerful republic in the world, did not join with the seven small united provinces. These latter were their own protectors, while Brabant, Flanders, and the rest, chose a foreign prince to defend them. Archduke Matthias being now of no further use, the states-general dismissed this son, the brother of emperors, who afterward was emperor himself, with a small pension, and sent for Francis, duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III. of France, with whom they had been in treaty for some time. These provinces were divided into four par¬ ties ; that of Archduke Matthias, which was so weak that it could not prevent his dismission; that of the duke of Anjou, which afterward became so fatally powerful ; that of the duke of Parma, which consisted only of some few of the great lords and

The United Provinces.

299

his own army, but which at length preserved ten provinces to the crown of Spain ; and that of Will¬ iam of Nassau, which rent seven from it forever.

It was at this time that Philip, who still continued inactive in Madrid, proscribed the prince of Orange and set a reward of twenty-five thousand crowns upon his head. This method of commanding assas¬ sinations, unheard of since the time of the Roman triumvirate, had been practised in France against Admiral de Coligny, father-in-law to this William, the price of whose blood was fixed at fifty thousand crowns, though that of his son-in-law was rated at only half the price by Philip, who could afford to have paid a much greater. How great were the prejudices which still continued to reign at that time ! The king of Spain, in his edict of proscrip¬ tion, acknowledges that he had violated the oath he had taken to the Flemings, and says the pope had granted him a dispensation from that oath. Did he think that this reason would make a strong impres¬ sion on the minds of his Catholic subjects? Per¬ haps it might ; but, on the other hand, how greatly must it exasperate the Protestants, and confirm them in their defection !

William’s reply to this edict is the most beautiful piece of the kind we have in history. From a sub¬ ject, which he had been, he became Philip’s equal, from the instant of his being proscribed. In his apology we see a prince of an imperial house, not less ancient, nor formerly less illustrious than that of

300 Ancient and Modern History.

Austria, and a stadtholder, who declares himself the accuser of the most powerful king in Europe, before the tribunal of every court, and of all mankind ; and who shows himself far superior to Philip, because, having it in his power to proscribe him in his turn, he abhors such revenge, and depends upon his sword alone for his safety.

Philip’s power was at this very time become more formidable than it ever had been ; for he had made himself master of Portugal without stirring out of his cabinet, and still thought of reducing the United Provinces. William had on one hand the attempts of assassins to dread, and on the other the power of a new master, in the duke of Anjou, who had arrived in the Netherlands, and had been acknowledged by the people as duke of Brabant and count of Flanders. He was soon defeated by the duke of Anjou, as he had been by the archduke Matthias. This duke wanted to be absolute sovereign over a country that had chosen him for its protector. From the earliest ages we have seen conspiracies formed against princes, but here a prince conspired against the peo¬ ple. He attempted to surprise at once Antwerp, Bruges, and the other towns he came to defend. Fifteen hundred French were killed in the vain attempt to surprise Antwerp ; he failed in his design upon the other places, and pressed by Alexander Farnese on one side, and hated by the people on the other, he withdrew into France, and left the prince of Orange and the duke of Parma to dispute the

The United Provinces.

3QI

Netherlands between them, which soon became the most illustrious theatre of war in Europe, and a military school, whither the brave of all countries repaired, to serve their apprenticeship in the field.

At length Philip was avenged on the prince of Orange by the hands of assassins. A Frenchman, named Salcede, had laid a plot for his life. One Jaurigni, a Spaniard, wounded him in 1583, with a pistol in Antwerp, and at length, in 1584, Balthazar Gerard, a native of Franche-Comte, murdered him in Delft, in the presence of his princess, who thus beheld her second husband slain by the hands of an assassin, after having lost her first, as well as her father, the admiral, in the fatal massacre of St. Bar¬ tholomew. This murder of the prince of Orange was not committed for the sake of the reward of twenty-five thousand crowns offered by Philip, but through a religious enthusiasm. The Jesuit Strada relates that Gerard continued to declare in the midst of his torments that he had been pushed on to commit this act by a divine instinct. He also says in express terms that Jaurigni, before that, did not undertake the murder of the prince of Orange, till he had purged his soul by confession at the feet of the Dominican fathers, and strengthened himself in his resolves by partaking of the consecrated bread. This was the vice of the times, and had been begun by the Anabaptists. A woman in Germany, during the siege of Munster, took it into her head to imitate Judith ; she left the city with a design of lying with

302 Ancient and Modern History.

the bishop, who was besieging the place, and of kill¬ ing him in his bed. Poltrot de Mere assassinated the duke of Guise on the same principles ; and the finish¬ ing stroke had been put to these horrors by the mas¬ sacre of St. Bartholomew. The same spirit after¬ ward caused the deaths of Henry III. and IV. of France, and formed the Gunpowder Plot in England. Examples of this kind, taken from Scripture, and first published from the pulpits by the reformers or inno¬ vators, and afterward too frequently by the Catho¬ lics, made a deep impression on weak and cruel minds, who thought they heard the voice of God commanding them to commit murder. Their blind and furious zeal did not let them comprehend that when God commanded the shedding of blood in the Old Testament, these orders were never obeyed, except when He Himself came from Heaven, and with His own lips dictated His decrees against the lives of men, of which He is the absolute master.

When William the Silent was murdered, he was on the point of being declared count of Holland. The conditions of this new dignity had been already stipulated by all the cities, except those of Amster¬ dam and Gouda. By this we may perceive that he had labored for himself at least as much as for the republic.

His son Maurice could not pretend to this prin¬ cipality : but the Seven United Provinces declared him stadtholder, and he strengthened the edifice of public liberty, which had been founded by his father.

The United Provinces. 303

As a general he was altogether worthy to enter the lists with Alexander Farnese : and these two great men immortalized themselves by their deeds on this confined theatre, where the scene of war attracted the eyes of all nations. Had the duke of Parma acquired no other reputation than that which he gained by the siege of Antwerp, he would have been deservedly reckoned among the greatest captains. The inhabit¬ ants of Antwerp defended themselves like the ancient Tyrians, and Farnese took Antwerp, as Alexander, whose name he bore, took the city of Tyre, by raising a dam on the deep and rapid river Scheldt; and thus reviving an example which was followed by Cardinal Richelieu at the siege of La Rochelle.

The new republic was obliged to implore the assistance of Elizabeth of England, who sent them four thousand men, under the command of the earl of Leicester. This was a sufficient reinforcement at that time. Prince Maurice had for a while a superior in the earl of Leicester, as his father had formerly in the duke of Anjou, and the archduke Matthias ; this nobleman assumed the title and rank of governor- general, which, however, was soon afterward dis¬ avowed by his mistress. Maurice would never suffer an encroachment upon his dignity of stadtholder of the Seven United Provinces. Happy would it have been had he never attempted to go further.

During the whole course of this war, which lasted so long, and with such various successes, Philip had never been able to recover the Seven Provinces, nor

304 Ancient and Modern History.

could his enemies deprive him of the others. The republic became every day so formidable by sea that she was not a little instrumental in destroying Philip’s famous fleet, called the Invincible Armada. This people had for forty years resembled the Lac¬ edaemonians, who had always repulsed the great king. There were the same manners, the same sim¬ plicity, and the same equality of conditions in Amsterdam as at Sparta, and a greater degree of sobriety. These provinces still resembled, in some things, the primitive ages of the world. Almost every Frieslander who has heard anything, knows that at that time the use of locks and keys was not known in Friesland. They had nothing more than the absolute necessaries of life, and these were not worth locking up ; they were under no apprehension from their own countrymen, and they defended their flocks and harvests against the enemy. The dwell¬ ings in all the maritime provinces were no more than huts, -where neatness made all the magnificence. Never was there a people less acquainted with deli¬ cacy. When Louisa of Coligny went to The Plague to be married to Prince William of Orange, an open post-wagon was sent to meet her, in which she made her entry seated on a plank. But, toward the latter end of Maurice’s life, and in the time of his son, Frederick Henry, The Hague became an agreeable residence, by the concourse of princes, ministers of state, and general officers who resorted thither. Amsterdam rose by its trade alone to be the most

Don Sebastian. 305

flourishing and opulent city on the globe, and the country people of the surrounding villages were enriched by the cpiantity of excellent pasture grounds that are in its neighborhood.

CHAPTER CXXXVII.

SEQUEL OF THE REIGN OF PHILIP II. - THE MISFOR¬

TUNES OF DON SEBASTIAN, KING OF PORTUGAL.

The king of Spain seemed at that time able to crush the house of Nassau and the newly formed republic, beneath the weight of his power. He had indeed lost the sovereignty of Tunis in Africa, together with the port of Goletta, where Carthage formerly stood : but a king of Fez and Morocco, named Muley Mahomet, who then disputed the kingdom with his uncle, had offered to become his tributary in 1577, which offer Philip had refused, and this refusal gained him the crown of Portugal. The African prince went and threw himself at the feet of Don Sebastian, king of Portugal, to implore his assist¬ ance. This young monarch who was a great grand¬ son of the famous Emanuel, burned with ardor to signalize himself in a part of the world where his ancestors had made so many conquests. What is very extraordinary is that Philip, who was Sebas¬ tian’s uncle by the mother’s side, and was soon to have given him his daughter in marriage, refused to assist him on this occasion, and that the prince of Orange, who could hardly keep his footing in Flan- Vol. 27 — 20

30 6 Ancient and Modern History.

I •

ders, furnished him with a body of troops. This circumstance, though trifling in a general history, serves to show the greatness of soul of the prince of Orange, and that he was determined to raise enemies against Philip in all parts of the world.

Don Sebastian landed at Arjila, in the kingdom of Fez, a town which had formerly been conquered by his ancestors. He had with him eight hundred ves¬ sels, and an army of fifteen thousand infantry, but not more than a thousand horse. It is probably on account of this small number of cavalry, in pro¬ portion to that of the Moors, that historians have condemned his undertaking as rash ; but what enco¬ miums would they have lavished upon him had he been successful ! He was defeated, however, on Aug. 4, 1578, by the old king of Morocco, Malucco. In this battle there perished three kings, namely, the two kings of Morocco, the uncle and nephew, and Don Sebastian himself : in short, not a soul returned of the conquered army. And now, for the first time, a cardinal priest became a king; this was Don Henry, son of Emanuel, and great-uncle of Don Sebastian, who succeeded him, as the undoubted heir to the crown of Portugal.

Philip, however, immediately made preparations to succeed Sebastian himself ; and, that everything in this affair might be extraordinary, Pope Gregory XIII. made himself one of the competitors, upon pretence that the kingdom of Portugal belonged to the holy see, in default of heirs in a right line,

Don Sebastian.

307

because, as he pretended, Alexander III. had for¬ merly created Count Alphonso king of that country, who, thereupon, acknowledged himself a feudatory of Rome. This was a strange reason. Pope Greg¬ ory, however, whose name was Boncompagno, had formed the design, or rather idle notion, of bestow¬ ing this kingdom on his bastard, Boncompagno ; not being willing to dismember the ecclesiastical state to provide for him, as several of his predecessors had done. At first he entertained hopes of procuring the kingdom of Ireland for his son, because Philip was fomenting the troubles on that island, as Eliza¬ beth did those in the Netherlands. Ireland having, as well as other kingdoms, been given by the popes, would necessarily revert to them, or their children* as soon as its sovereign was excommunicated. This scheme, however, did not succeed. The pope obtained a few ships and troops from Philip, which, together with a body of Italians under the pope’s colors, made a descent upon Ireland ; but they were all cut off, and the Irish who were in their interest were all hanged. Gregory XIII. then turned his views upon Portugal ; but here he was opposed by Philip, who had a better right than himself, and was better able to support that right.

The old cardinal king lived just long enough to see juridically disputed before him the matter of who should be his heir, and then died. Antonio, prior of Crato, a knight of Malta, claimed the crown after the death of the priestly king, as being his

308 Ancient and Modern History.

uncle by the father’s side, whereas Philip was only his uncle by the mother’s side. The prior was gen¬ erally thought to be a bastard, but he insisted that ht was born in lawful wedlock. However, neither the prior nor the pope succeeded. The family of Bra- ganza also, who seemed to have a lawful claim to the succession, were neither so prudent or fearful at that time as not to take advantage of it; and an army of twenty thousand men put it out of doubt that Philip was the only lawful heir ; in those times this was more than a sufficient force. The prior, who was unable to make any resistance himself, applied to the grand seignior for his assistance, but in vain. In short, there was nothing lacking to com¬ plete the oddity of this affair, but to see the pope applying to the Turks to make him king of Portugal.

Philip, as I have observed before, never made war in person. He now subdued Portugal from his closet. He recalled the old duke of Alva, whom he had banished two years before, after all his long services, and once more let him loose, like a blood¬ hound that had been chained up from carnage ; and this bloody veteran finished his career of slaughter, by twice defeating the little army of the prior, who was now abandoned by everyone, and driven out to wander at a distance from his country.

Philip then repaired to Lisbon, and was crowned king of Portugal, after which he offered a reward of twenty thousand ducats to whoever should deliver

Don Sebastian.

309

up Don Antonio. Proscriptions were the customary arms made use of by this monarch.

The prior of Catro at first took refuge in England, with a few companions of his misfortunes, who, destitute of everything, and ruined like himself, still continued to serve him upon the knee. This custom was first established by the German emperors, who succeeded the family of Charlemagne, and afterward introduced into Spain, when Alphonso X., king of Castile, was elected emperor in the thirteenth cen¬ tury. It has also been adopted by the kings of Eng¬ land, which seems rather contradictory to the haughty freedom of that nation. The kings of France, satisfied with the exercise of real power, have always despised it. The kings of Poland were served with this state on particular days, and yet have not been the more absolute.

Elizabeth was in no condition to fight the prior’s battles. She was an implacable enemy to Philip, though not a declared one, and used every expedient in her power to oppose him, and raise him up enemies in secret. But she had no other method of main¬ taining herself on the throne but by the affections of her people, which she would have lost by pressing them for new subsidies ; she therefore could not think of carrying the war into Spain.

Don Antonio then applied to the court of France. Henry III. and his council were at that time upon the same footing of jealousy and apprehension, with regard to Philip, as the queen of England. There

310 Ancient and Modern History.

was no open war between them ; but an old grudge, and a mutual inclination to do each other bad offices ; besides, Henry was continually perplexed between the Huguenots, who had formed another state within his, and Philip, who wanted to raise himself a party, by tendering his dangerous assistance to the Cath¬ olics.

Catherine de Medici had some pretensions upon Portugal, almost as chimerical as those of the pope. Now Don Antonio, by flattering these pretensions, and promising a part of that kingdom, which he could not recover for himself, or at least a part of the Azores, where he had a considerable party, found means, through Catherine’s interest, to procure pow¬ erful aid. He was furnished with a fleet of sixty small vessels, and about six thousand men, the most of them Huguenots, whom the nation was glad to employ at a distance, and who were themselves still more pleased at going to fight against the Span¬ iards. The French, especially the Calvinistic party, were at that time eager for every opportunity of fighting. They followed the duke of Anjou in crowds, to settle him in Flanders ; and embarked with the greatest alacrity to fix Antonio on the throne of Portugal.

In the beginning they made themselves masters of one of the Azores ; but the Spanish fleet appeared, in 1583. greatly superior to that of the French, both in the bulk of their ships, and the number of troops ; there were fifty large galleons, accompanied by

Don Sebastian.

3 ii

twelve row-galleys. This was the first time that gal¬ leys had been seen upon the ocean, and it is surpris¬ ing how they were navigated a thousand leagues in rough seas. When Louis XIV., a long time after¬ ward, sent a fleet of galleys to sea, it was looked upon as a new undertaking, and the first of its kind, though it certainly was not; however, it was a more dangerous one than that of Philip II., because the British ocean is much more stormy than the Atlantic.

This was the first naval fight which had occurred in that part of the world. The Spaniards gained the victory, and made a very cruel use of it ; for the marquis of Santa Cruz, who was general of Philip’s fleet, caused almost all the prisoners to be put to death, under pretence that war not being declared between France and Spain, he had a right to treat them as pirates. Don Antonio luckily saved him¬ self by flight, and returned to France to be served upon the knee, and to end his days in poverty and wretchedness.

Philip now saw himself master not only of Portu¬ gal, but likewise of all the fine settlements which that nation had made in the Indies. But though he extended his dominions to the farther ends of Amer¬ ica and Asia, he could not subdue the little republic of Holland.

In 1584 an embassy of four kings, which arrived at his court from Japan, seemed to complete the ful¬ ness of that supreme power, which made him con-

312 Ancient and Modern History.

sidered as the first monarch in Europe. The Chris¬ tian religion had made great progress in Japan, and the Spaniards had reason to flatter themselves with establishing their dominion in that empire, as well as their religion.

In Christendom he had the pope to keep fair with, as lord paramount of his kingdom of Naples. He had France to keep in continual distraction, which he succeeded in by means of the League and the immense sums he lavished; he had Holland to reduce, and commotions to raise in England. All these springs did he put in play at once, and soon afterward it appeared by the equipment of his Invincible Armada, that his design was rather to make the conquest of England, than merely to dis¬ turb its peace.

Queen Elizabeth certainly furnished him with sufficient reasons for his conduct. She protected the confederate states of the Netherlands with a high hand. Sir Francis Drake, at that time a private adventurer, had plundered several of the Spanish possessions in America, and passed the Strait of Magellan, and returned again to London in 1580, loaded with booty, after having made the tour of the globe. Another pretence, yet more weighty than these, was the captivity of Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, whom Elizabeth had detained a prisoner eighteen years against the law of nations. This princess had all the Catholics of England in her interest; and had an apparent right to the English

Don Sebastian.

3J3

crown ; a right which she derived from Henry VII. by birth, the legitimacy of which could not be ques¬ tioned like that of Elizabeth. Philip might also have prosecuted his own claim to the empty title of king of England ; and, besides, by undertaking to deliver Mary from her confinement, he was certain of making the pope and all the Catholics of Europe his friends.

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